ISLAMIC  AFRI 


R.  BURTON  SHEPPA] 


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II I  III 


Dwisioa         "    ^ '  ^^ 

scctioQ     .A  4- 5  54- 


A FlilC A  X    ' '  1  »K(  )D U  CTS  " 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA 


BY^X 


R.  BURTON  SHEPPARD 


ILLUSTRATED 


THE    METHODIST    BOOK    CONCERN 
NEW  YORK       CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1914,  by 
R.  BURTON  SHEPPARD 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

African  "Products" frontispiece 

Tunisian  Arabs facing  20 

Mosque,  Algiers 27 

Singing  and  Playing  Dervishes 34 

A  Native  Moslem  of  the  West  Coast 41 

Mosque,  Durban •'^O 

Native  Moslem  Family,  Inhambane 61 

Looking  for  a  Bigger  "World" C5 

Mosque,  Inhambane "1 

Of  the  Jingi  Tribe,  Angola 77 

Veiled  Moslem  Women,  Algiers 86 

Multicolored  "Problems" 93 

One  Method  of  Character-Building 99 

Not  the  Only  Load  Carried  by  African  Womanhood 107 

A  Chopi  Woman 112 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

An  Appreciation 7 

Foreword 11 

Prefatory 13 

Islam's  Founder,    Prevalence,  Characteristics,  In- 
fluence 

The   Bloody   Entrance  of   Islam  into  the  World 

Family  of  Religions 17 

Original  mild  methods  in  its  propagation  give  way 
to  crime  and  bloodshed. 

Factors  in  the  Amazing  Advance  of  Islam 23 

Which  made  it  a  prosperous  "child"  in  the  "family." 
— A  great  variety  of  widening  influences. 

Africa — The  Prize  Sought  After  by  the  Prophet 

OF  Mecca 55 

Displacement  of  Christianity  in  North  Africa. — 
Moslem  dominance  throughout  the  Continent  a 
possibility. 

The  African  as  a  Moslem 67 

Uplifting  tendencies  of  Islam  overbalanced  by  evil 
effects:  An  enemy  of  the  State,  an  enemy  of  the 
home,  a  detriment  to  moral  growth,  a  hindrance  to 
spiritual  thought. 

The  Defeat  of  Islam  in  Africa  Necessary  for  the 

Greatest  Future  of  the  Black  Man 113 

If  Islam  is  not  defeated  in  Africa,  the  country  may 
still  be  developed;  but  the  "Man"  is  in  greater  need 
of  development  than  the  country. 


AN    APPRECIATION 

During  1910-1911  the  Rev.  Bishop  Joseph  C. 
Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  for  Africa  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  made  it  pos- 
sible for  me,  as  his  secretary,  to  visit  widely 
separated  sections  of  the  continent  of  Africa. 
On  these  journeys  numerous  notes  were  se- 
cured and  investigations  made  in  anticipa- 
tion of  this  work.  For  the  opportunities  thus 
afforded  for  travel  and  study  I  wish  to  ex- 
press my  deepest  gratitude  to  Bishop  Hartzell. 

The  Author. 

Humeston,  Iowa,  March  1,  1914. 


There  are  several  Africas.  There  is  the 
civilized  Africa  in  the  south,  Cape  Colony, 
Natal,  Orange  River  and  the  Transvaal,  nnder 
the  British  flag,  having  free  institutions,  sus- 
taining the  same  relations  to  the  British  em- 
pire that  Canada  sustains.  It  has  a  vast 
developed  and  undeveloped  wealth.  The  other 
civilized  Africa  is  along  the  Mediterranean, 
with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Europeans, 
French,  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  Germans,  and 
200,000  Jews  in  Tripoli,  Tunis,  Algiers,  and 
Oran.  However,  the  civilization  of  the  northern 
zone  is  a  mere  strip  along  the  coast.  Migration 
of  Europeans  is  of  no  significance  except  along 
the  coast.  Back  beyond  the  coast  billows  the 
desert,  and  then  the  jungle.  And  for  that 
matter,  the  migration  of  Europeans  to  South 
Africa  since  the  Boer  War  has  been  disap- 
pointing to  those  interested  in  empire-build- 
ing. Africa  is  still  almost  untouched. — Central 
Christian  Advocate, 


FOREWORD 

Man  is  peculiarly  and  by  nature  interested 
in  questions  relating  to  his  immediate  en- 
vironment. Questions  of  the  home  are  of  deep 
concern;  matters  of  local  importance  have 
rightful  place  in  his  thought ;  problems  of  state 
have  their  legitimate  consideration.  But  the 
horizon  of  one  with  broad  and  intelligent  in- 
terests is  more  far-reaching,  including  other 
lands  and  races.  In  such  consideration  ques- 
tions develop  greatest  interest  in  proportion 
as  they  affect,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  des- 
tiny of  large  sections  of  the  human  race. 

From  this  standpoint,  Islam  in  Africa  can- 
not but  have  a  large  share  in  the  minds  of 
thoughtful  people,  affecting,  as  it  does,  ap- 
proximately one  eighth  of  the  world's  popula- 
tion in  its  immediate  contact,  and  in  Africa 
the  more  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  mil- 
lions of  black  people  by  its  presence  and 
threatened  presence  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
a  people  great  in  their  lack  of  civilization  in 
the  past,  and  equally  great  in  their  latent 
possibilities. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  present  a 
11 


12  FOREWORD 

bird's-eye  view  of  Africa  as  influenced  bj 
Islam,  to  give  a  picture  of  the  continent  in 
relation  to  that  religion  which  has  proven  it- 
self the  hardiest  foe  of  Christianity.  The 
information  herein  contained  is  drawn  from 
a  fourfold  source:  (1)  books  and  magazines; 
(2)  correspondence  with  men  long  on  the  con- 
tinent; (3)  personal  observations  throughout 
the  continent;  (4)  interviews  with  many  in 
different  sections  of  Africa  and  upon  the  high 
seas,  regarding  conditions  in  regions  with 
which  they  were  conversant.  In  this  manner 
of  treatment,  information  gathered  from  indi- 
viduals cannot  be  relied  upon  in  every  detail. 
The  sections  investigated  and  the  persons 
consulted,  however,  have  been  so  numerous 
that  it  is  believed  the  general  conclusions  can 
be  trusted.  To  make  a  personal  study  of  the 
different  fields,  such  as  each  of  those  consulted 
has  made  in  his  own  field  by  long  residence 
or  contact  therewith,  would  be  a  physical  im- 
possibility for  one  to  accomplish.  Where  an 
informant  has  seemed  in  any  way  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  sentimentality,  that  has  been 
taken  into  consideration. 

The  illustrations  are  kodak  pictures  taken 
by  the  author  while  in  Africa. 


PREFATORY 

Interest  in  Islam  centers  about  four  facts : 
(1)  Its  Founder,  (2)  Its  Prevalence,  (3)  Its 
Characteristics,  (4)  Its  Influence. 

The  Founder  of  Islam 

The  life  of  Mohammed  is  one  of  the  enigmas 
of  religious  history.  He  was  possessed  of  a 
deeply  emotional  nature,  together  with  a  keen 
sense  of  the  existence  of  a  divine  being  with 
some  relation  to  man ;  in  his  early  experiences 
he  was  puzzled  over  what  that  exact  relation 
might  be.  His  unremitting  religious  thought, 
affected  by  his  intense  emotionalism,  resulted 
in  an  ecstatic  condition  of  the  soul  which 
carried  him  into  semiconscious  states.  During 
such  times  he  gave  expression  to  thoughts  and 
messages  which  he  claimed  were  divinely  in- 
spired. These  conditions  have  by  some  been 
described  as  epileptic  attacks.  Whatever  may 
have  induced  them,  they  left  in  the  mind  of 
Mohammed  an  indelible  belief  that  he  was  the 
vicegerent  of  God  on  earth,  God's  latest  and 
last  prophet.    This  was  the  impelling  force  in 

13 


14  PREFATORY 

his  early  religious  experiences.  His  sincerity 
in  that  period  cannot  well  be  denied.  Nor  is 
it  impossible  that  he  was  sincere  throughout 
his  life.  The  oftentimes  inexplicable  conduct 
of  the  human  mind  brings  it  within  the  realm 
of  possibility  that  Mohammed  might  have  so 
gradually  advanced  step  by  step  in  the  advo- 
cacy of  his  claims  as  a  prophet  of  God,  with 
a  direct  message  for  men,  as  to  make  himself 
believe  that  his  each  and  every  act  was  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God.  While  this  may  be 
possible,  however,  Moslem  writers  quite  gener- 
ally agree  in  thinking  it  hardly  probable  in 
view  of  the  extreme  acts  of  the  Prophet's  life. 
The  following  quotation  from  Schlegel,  the 
German  scholar,  doubtless  sums  up  the  rea- 
sons for  suspicion  of  the  motives  of  Moham- 
med. Schlegel  describes  the  Prophet  and  his 
religion  as  "a  prophet  without  miracles,  a  re- 
ligion without  mysteries,  and  a  morality  with- 
out love,  which  has  encouraged  a  thirst  for 
blood,  and  w^hich  began  and  ended  in  un- 
bounded sensuality." 

The  Prevalence  of  Islam 

The  following  figures  indicate  a  real  "Mos- 
lem World."     In  1909  a  monthly  magazine 


PREFATORY  15 

began  publication  in  Paris  for  the  purpose  of 
surveying  this  "WorlcV — the  Revue  du  Monde 
Mussulman.  The  difference  in  the  estimates 
of  the  world  population  of  Moslems  is  largely 
due  to  the  impossibility  of  correctly  estimat- 
ing those  in  China  and  the  Sudan.  In  the 
former  the  figures  are  between  five  and  ten 
millions.  India  has  nearly  sixty-two  and  one 
half  million  Moslems,  the  greatest  number  of 
any  country,  and  Java  follows  with  more  than 
twenty-four  millions.  England  has  five  mil- 
lion more  Moslems  than  Christians  under  her 
rule.  More  than  two  thirds  of  the  Moslem 
population  of  the  world  live  under  Christian 
rulers. 

The  World  Figures 

Statesman's  Year  Book,  1890 203,600,000 

Brockhaus,  "Convers.-Lexikon,"  1894 175,000,000 

Hubert    Jansen,    "Verbreitung    des    Islams," 

1897  259,680,672 

S.  M.  Zwemer  (Missionary  Review),  1898...   196,491,842 

Allgemeine  Missions  Zeitschrift,  1902 175,290,000 

H.  Wichmann,  in  Justus  Perthes's  "Atlas," 

1903 240,000,000 

Encyclopedia  of  Missions,  1904 193,550,000 

The  Mohammedan  World  of  To-day    (Cairo 

Conference,    1906) 232,966,170 

Martin  Hartmann    (1910) 223,985,780 


16  PREFATORY 

In  the  New  World  the  figures  for  1911,  the 
most  recent  obtainable,  are  as  follows: 

Central  America  and  West  Indies 20,600 

United    States 8,000 

British   Guiana 22,200 

Dutch   Guiana 5,800 

Total    56,600 

Africa's  Moslem  population  is  more  than 
59,000,000. 


THE  BLOODY  ENTRANCE  OF  ISLAM 

INTO  THE  WORLD  FAMILY 

OF  RELIGIONS 


17 


Islam  is  .  .  .  the  only  anti-Christian  religion. 
Islam  is  not  a  state  church  but  a  church  state. 
Christianity  is  the  religion  of  love  and  Islam  that  of 
force.  — Moslem  World. 

Paradise  is  under  the  shadow  of  swords. — Mohammed. 


18 


THE    BLOODY    ENTRANCE    OF    ISLAM 

INTO   THE   WORLD   FAMILY 

OF    RELIGIONS 

The  beginnings  of  any  religious  movement 
are  alwa3s  of  interest — the  motives  in  the 
mind  of  the  founder,  in  the  case  of  Mohammed 
already  referred  to,  the  methods  used  in  the 
original  propagation,  the  people  first  influ- 
enced. It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  wife 
of  Mohammed  was  the  first  to  accept  his  views 
regarding  his  so-called  visions  and  divine  com- 
munications. Soon  a  half-hundred  followers 
were  won  among  the  poorer  and  slave  classes. 
Also  a  prominent  merchant,  Abu  Bekr, 
accepted  his  claim  and  remained  faithful 
throughout  his  life.  These  first  converts  to 
Islam,  as  Mohammed  designated  the  new  reli- 
gion— the  word  meaning  "surrender  to  God's 
will" — were  won  by  mild  methods,  Mohammed 
presenting  the  matter  to  them  and  they  ac- 
cepting. Well  would  it  have  been  if  as  sane 
methods  had  been  continued.  The  bloody 
pages  of  Moslem  history  would  never  have 
been  written,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  a  "Mos- 
lem Menace"  would  ever  have  been  known. 

19 


20  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  the  first  perse- 
cutions in  connection  with  Islam  were  against 
the  followers  of  Mohammed,  and  not  by  them 
against  others.  Mohammed  denounced  the 
idols  of  his  own  countrymen,  advocating  a  dis- 
tinct monotheism.  This  resulted  in  persecu- 
tion, his  followers  fleeing  to  Abyssinia  for 
refuge.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  the 
Prophet  was  leading  his  people  to  battle  and 
compelling  allegiance  at  the  point  of  the 
sword.  Rejected  by  his  own  city  of  Mecca,  he 
found  refuge  in  Medina,  from  which  place  he 
directed  forays  in  all  directions,  strengthen- 
ing his  own  position  and  securing  large  booty. 
Nor  did  he  shrink  from  murder  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  plans.  For  example,  a  certain  poetess 
by  the  name  of  Asona  did  not  accept  his 
claims,  and  wrote  verses  of  poetry  ridiculing 
him  for  turning  against  his  own  people  in 
Mecca.  This  offended  his  followers,  and  one 
of  them,  a  former  husband  of  the  poetess, 
according  to  tradition,  went  to  her  apartment 
by  night,  took  her  sleeping  child  from  her 
breast,  and  then  killed  her  with  the  sword. 
This  act  received  the  hearty  approval  of  Mo- 
hammed, who  assured  the  murderer  that  he 
need  have  no  apprehension  whatever  for  his 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  21 

deed.  The  man  was  blind,  and  in  speaking 
of  him  to  the  bystanders  Mohammed  said,  "Be- 
hold a  man  that  hath  assisted  the  Lord  and 
his  Prophet."  Whereupon  some  one  spoke  of 
him  as  "the  blind  Omeir,"  and  Mohammed  re- 
plied, "Call  him  not  blind;  call  him,  rather, 
Omeir  the  Seeing." 

Mohammed  strengthened  himself  in  Medina 
and  the  surrounding  country,  and  finally, 
after  untold  bloodshed  and  bitter  cruelty,  was 
able  to  make  himself  master  of  Mecca  as  well. 
At  the  time  of  his  death  he  had  conquered  all 
Arabia,  and  the  religion  of  the  "surrender  of 
the  soul  to  God"  had  received  such  impetus  as 
was  destined  to  make  it  an  important  factor 
in  the  history  of  religions  and  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  As  a  religion  its  entrance  into 
the  family  of  world  religions  was  indeed  a 
bloody  one.  In  this  way  the  Prophet  was  en- 
abled to  extend  his  power,  and  to  force  upon 
the  people  his  own  idea  of  a  barren  monothe- 
ism, projecting  out  into  the  future  a  religion 
which,  based  upon  meager  and  apocryphal 
stories  of  the  Bible,  was  destined  to  become 
a  virile  enemy  and  opponent  of  Christianity. 


FACTORS  IN  THE  AMAZING 
ADVANCE  OF  ISLAM 


23 


.  .  .  the  motive  forces  in  its  march  across  Africa,  are 
mainly  pride  of  power,  religious  and  secular,  and  greed 
of  gain. 

Mohammed  .  .  .  rises  from  his  grave  to  proclaim  an- 
other holy  war,  not  of  the  scimitar  this  time,  but  of 
trade,  of  missionary  zeal  and  sacrifice. 

— Central  Christian  Advocate. 

...  a  religion  that  permits  falsehood  under  any  con- 
ditions is  one  that  will  find  adherents.  Lying,  licen- 
tiousness, cheating,  polygamy,  divorce,  and  heaven  is 
a  program  that  so  completely  suits  fallen  man  that  it 
can  be  no  wonder  that  Islam  is  gaining  followers 
rapidly  in  a  country  like  Africa. — Moslem  World. 


24 


FACTOKS    IN    THE    AMAZING 
ADVANCE    OF    ISLAM 

Buddhism^  founded  in  the  sixth  centujj 
before  Christ,  Christianity  with  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era,  and  Islam  in  the  seventh 
century  after  Christ,  form  the  great  trium- 
virate of  missionary  religions.  The  last  two 
are  not  unlike  in  certain  respects.  Mohammed 
secured  his  information  as  to  Christianity 
from  association  with  heretical  sects  of  the 
Jews.  The  refusal  of  these  Jews  to  acknowl- 
edge Mohammed  as  a  prophet,  owing  to  his 
version  of  the  Scriptures  being  misrepresen- 
tations, caused  him  to  abandon  them  with  the 
claim  that  they  did  not  have  the  original 
biblical  stories,  and  that  to  him  had  been 
revealed  the  true  gospel.  There  is,  then,  a  re- 
lation between  Islam  and  Christianity,  many 
of  the  stories  having  the  same  foundation,  but 
by  Mohammed  fearfully  distorted  to  suit  him- 
self. Two  of  the  missionary  religions  of  the 
Avorld,  therefore,  have  points  in  common.  And 
because  of  the  virility  shown  by  Islam  this  is 
the  one  religion  that  Christianity  must  con- 
sider in  its  contact  with  races  foreign  to  both 
religions — the  only  anti-Christian  religion. 

25 


26  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

An  examination  into  the  prevalence  of 
Islam  reveals  a  wide  range  of  causes  for  its 
spread.  Three  reasons  are  assigned  for  its 
spread  in  Java:  trade,  through  which  Islam 
became  known,  the  traders  being  strict  reli- 
gionists and  propagandists;  religious  instruc- 
tion in  Moslem  schools;  Meccan  pilgrimage, 
which  always  gives  added  influence  to  those 
making  it.  In  Africa  the  causes  are  said  to 
be  "native  agents,  simple  methods,  intolerant 
zeal." 

In  particular,  the  following  may  be  desig- 
nated as  reasons  for  African  Islamic  advance : 

1.  War 

Islam  became  preeminently  a  fighting  religion. 

War  was  enjoined  on  the  Moslems  until  Arabia  be- 
came wholly  believing, — Moslem  World. 

.  .  .  fight  for  the  religion  of  God  against  those  who 
fight  against  you;  but  transgress  not,  for  God  loveth 
not  the  transgressors.  And  kill  them  wherever  ye  find 
them,  and  turn  them  out  of  whatever  they  have  dis- 
possessed you:  for  temptation  to  idolatry  is  more  griev- 
ous than  slaughter.  .  .  .  Fight,  therefore,  against  them 
until  there  be  no  temptation  to  idolatry,  and  the  re- 
ligion be  God's. — Koran,  Sura  II. 

War  was  the  great  factor  in  the  early  days 
of  Islamic  advancement,  the  sword  being  the 
chief  "missionary"  influence.  The  same  con- 
dition would  still  obtain  were  the  Moslems 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  27 

able  to  wield  the  influence  which  once  made 
them  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  which 
w^as  turned  aside  from  Europe  only  by  the 
battle  of  Tours  in  A.  D.  732,  when  Charles 
Martel  defeated  the  army  of  the  Saracens.  It 
has  not  been  many  years  since  warlike 
methods  were  used  in  Africa  for  the  spread 
of  Islam.  The  following  is  taken  from  the 
Military  Report  on  the  Colony  and  Protec- 
torate of  Sierra  Leone  for  1008 : 

About  this  time  [1886]  a  great  Mohammedan  warrior 
chief  named  Samory  began  to  make  his  influence  felt 
both  in  the  British  and  French  spheres.  His  followers, 
who  called  themselves  Sofas,  raided  in  all  directions 
from  their  headquarters  on  the  Upper  Niger.  They 
treated  the  tribes  with  which  they  came  in  contact  with 
the  greatest  cruelty,  carrying  off  men  and  women  into 
slavery  and  plundering  their  property. 

While  along  the  west  coast  of  the  continent 
in  March,  1911,  there  Avas  word  of  a  Renter 
telegram  of  some  time  previous  which  stated 
that  at  Kano,  French  West  Africa,  a  native 
Moslem  mullah  had  endeavored  to  get  his 
whole  tribe  to  go  with  him  into  the  Sudan, 
away  from  French  territory.  His  purpose 
seemed  to  be  to  gain  a  point  far  enough  from 
the  coast  from  which,  undisturbed,  he  could 
carry  on  a  religious  war.    The  French  learned 


28  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

of  the  attempt,  sent  an  expedition  against  him, 
and  four  hundred  followers  of  the  chief  were 
killed. 

At  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Tchataldja,  be- 
tween the  allied  Balkan  forces  and  Turkey, 
two  devout  Moslems  went  to  the  front  to 
investigate  the  situation.  In  their  report,  in 
which  they  endeavor  to  account  for  the  defeat 
of  Turkish  arms,  they  assign  as  one  of  the 
causes  the  lessening  of  religious  ardor  among 
the  followers  of  the  Prophet: 

The  religious  ardor  of  the  soldiers  has  become  much 
feebler  during  four  years.  Formerly  the  bugle  sounded 
regularly  in  every  regiment  for  the  five  regular  prayers; 
the  prayers  were  said,  and  those  who  neglected  them 
were  punished.  At  the  beginning  of  the  constitutional 
regime  these  religious  duties  were  neglected,  and  so  this 
sentiment  has  become  weakened.  From  time  imme- 
morial there  was  in  the  heart  of  the  soldier  the  zeal 
for  returning  victorious  from  war  or  for  dying  to  go  to 
paradise.  This  sentiment  has  been  replaced  by  "dying  for 
the  fatherland,"  which  the  soldier  has  not  understood. 

While  there  may  be  such  signs  of  the  lessen- 
ing of  religious  ardor,  the  religion  is  so  based 
upon  the  principle  of  extinction  of  other  faiths 
as  to  evidence  the  fact  that  non-possession  of 
sufficient  power  is  responsible  for  the  closing 
of  the  chapter  of  Moslem  cruelties  in  its  for- 
ward movement. 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  29 

2.    Christian  Weakness 

The  Christian  Church  is  not  without  respon- 
sibility in  the  rise  and  spread  of  Islam.  Dr. 
E.  Jenkins  says :  "I  never  hear  a  reference  to 
the  Mohammedan  creed  and  Moslem  history 
without  shame.  That  history  is  the  largest 
and  foulest  blot  upon  the  career  of  the  church. 
?.The  Moslem  power  sprang  from  the  ashes  of 
an  extinguished  missionary  fire;  the  Moslem 
power  could  never  have  arisen  in  the  days  of 
a  living  church."  Bishop  Montgomery  says: 
"It  is  to  the  weakness  of  the  church  founded* 
by  Frumentius  in  Abyssinia  ( ^an  early  Living- 
stone') that  we  owe  Mohammedanism/' 

Arabia  was  a  hotbed  for  religious  fanatics 
and  sects  of  all  sorts,  and  these  .  .  .  effected 
the  development  of  Mohammedanism,  which 
is  ...  an  accretion  from  other  beliefs.  The 
principal  influences  effecting  it  were  Arabian 
idolatry,  Magianism,  Hebraism,  and  Chris- 
tianity. The  sects  of  Christians  then  in  Arabia 
were  altogether  heretical — their  creeds  con- 
fusing and  bewildering.  This  suggests  that 
the  Christians  themselves  are  responsible  for 
the  rise  of  Mohammedanism. 

Its  present  rapid  advance  in  Africa  is  due 


30  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

to  Christian  neglect  of  the  continent.  The 
attempt  to  throw  a  line  of  Christian  missions 
across  the  middle  of  the  continent  is  evidence 
of  the  importance  attached  by  the  church  to 
the  cutting  off  of  Moslem  influence.  But  the 
^  fact  that  the  church  has  not  responded  to  the 
need  is  suggestive  of  the  reason  for  the  rapid 
growth  of  that  religion. 

Islam  has  spread  because  there  has  been  nothing  to 
keep  it  from  spreading.  Let  us  not  ask  the  reason  else- 
where, but  let  us  frankly  admit  that  we  have  not  done 
what  we  could  have  done  to  stem  the  tide  of  Moslem 
invasion,  partly  because  we  did  not  realize  it  was  in- 
vading the  country,  partly  because  we  have  thought 
our  time  fully  occupied  with  the  other  work. 

3.     Missionaries 

As  already  pointed  out,  the  first  convert  was 
the  wife  of  the  Prophet,  secured  by  personal 
presentation  of  his  claims.  Others  were  at 
once  secured  in  the  same  manner,  they  accept- 
ing his  claim  that  he  had  received  a  divine 
commission. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  every  ^Moslem  is 
a  missionary.  There  is  much  truth  in  such 
statement  Avhen  the  term  is  confined  to  the 
Arab,  but  as  to  missionary  effort  as  under- 
stood in  the  Christian  Church,  in  Islam  there 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  31 

is  but  little.  It  used  to  be  said  that  "Islam 
does  not  need  the  painful  foreign  missionary 
movements  ^yhich  you  Christians  go  in  for. 
It  is  the  proof  of  the  divine  character  of  our 
din  that  it  spreads  of  itself,  by  nature  and  by 
the  might  of  Allah.  If  we  were  to  add  our 
direct  efforts  to  this  natural  self-propagating 
tendency,  .  .  .  uff!''  A  new  spirit,  however, 
has  recently  been  showing  itself,  and  a  genuine 
missionary  propaganda  seems  to  be  in  evi- 
dence. There  was  a  "missionary  conference 
at  Lucknow  in  1910,  attended  by  Turks, 
Egyptians,  and  Indians  of  .  .  .  modernist 
type."  A  Moslem  missionary  society  has  been 
formed  in  Egypt.  The  instigator  of  the  move- 
ment is  Sheik  Rashid  Rida,  editor  of  a 
monthly  magazine  in  Cairo  under  the  name 
of  El-Manar.  A  sum  of  twelve  thousand 
pounds  was  subscribed  for  this  purpose.  Four 
resolutions  of  the  Society  explain  its  purpose 
(quoted  in  Moslem  World  from  El-Manar, 
Vol.  XIV,  p.  116)  : 

1.  That  a  society  be  founded  in  Cairo  called  "The 
Foreign  Missionary  Society"  (Jam  'iyat  ed-da'wa  wal- 
irshad). 

2.  That  the  purpose  of  this  society  be  the  foundation 
of  a  college  to  be  called  "The  Foreign  Missionary  In- 


32  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

stitute"  (Dar  ed-da'wa  walirshad)  in  Cairo,  for  the 
training  of  competent  men  of  learning  qualified  to  ex- 
tend Islam  and  to  defend  Islam;  and  the  sending  of 
such  men  into  the  countries  where  they  are  needed, 
beginning  with  those  where  the  need  is  greatest,  and 
so  on  in  order. 

3.  That  the  missionaries  be  sent  into  heathen  and 
Christian  lands  where  there  is  religious  liberty,  and  be 
not  sent  to  Islamic  countries,  except  where  Moham- 
medans are  being  openly  invited  to  change  their  re- 
ligion, and  where  no  men  of  learning  are  found  who 
are  qualified  to  remove  the  doubts  of  the  people  con- 
cerning Islam,  and  to  demonstrate  its  truth. 

4.  That  this  society  have  no  connection  with  politics 
whatsoever,  whether  the  politics  of  Egypt  or  of  Turkey 
or  of  any  other  government  whatsoever. 

As  yet  very  little  is  heard  in  Africa  of  a 
special  propaganda,  the  prevalent  conception 
of  its  advancement  being  that  all  traders  act 
as  propagandists  for  the  spread  of  their  reli- 
gion. During  a  two  and  one  half  months' 
stay  in  Rhodesia,  South  x\frica,  in  1910,  there 
was  rumor  of  five  Moslem  missionaries  who 
had  come,  or  were  coming,  into  Northern 
Rhodesia,  but  this  seems  to  have  been  only 
rumor.  In  Sierra  Leone,  in  the  heart  of  Islam 
on  the  west  coast,  there  seems  to  be  no  definite 
movement,  although  a  Mr.  Farrar,  for  ten 
years  in  that  colony,  was  quite  sure  he  had 
met  men  with  no  other  business  than  the  prop- 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  33 

agation  of  Islam — missionaries  in  the  ac- 
cepted meaning  of  the  term.  Near  Monrovia, 
Liberia,  there  is  a  Moslem  village  with  its 
Moslem  chief.  Here,  however,  there  is  no 
openly  avowed  purj)ose  of  extension,  although 
the  faith  is  gradually  gaining  a  hold  in  the 
republic.  This  Moslem  chief  made  a  pilgrim- 
age to  Mecca  during  1912-1913. 

4.     Senussiism 

About  the  year  1843  an  Algerian  dervish, 
Mohammed  ben  Ali  ben  Es  Senussi,  of  Mus- 
taghnam,  organized  within  Islam  an  Order 
which  has  come  to  be  known  by  his  name.  Its 
purpose  is  the  restoration  of  lands  once  Mos- 
lem to  Moslem  control  and  the  founding  in 
Africa  of  an  "Islamic  state,  whither  all  Mos- 
lems who  wished  to  be  quit  of  these  pernicious 
[European]  influences  could  resort  for 
refuge.^'  This  includes  the  ejection  of  "in- 
fidels" from  those  lands.  The  members  of  the 
Order  are  estimated  at  from  five  to  fifteen 
millions.  Its  headquarters  were  formerly  in 
Tripoli  at  Jerghbook  near  ben  Ghrazi,  but 
have  been  moved  some  distance  northwest  of 
Lake  Chad.  With  a  spirit  of  fanaticism 
greater  even  than  in  the  average  Moslem,  the 


34  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

members  seek  to  induce  a  spirit  of  hatred  for 
all  non-Moslems.  They  are  active  in  the  prop- 
agation of  the  faith.  The  Order  has  been 
called  "the  latest  and  strongest  Moslem  mis- 
sionary force  in  Africa  .  .  .  the  Jesuits  of 
Islam,'' 

United  in  purpose  and  energetic  in  the  dissemination 
of  their  views,  fired  with  a  desire  to  restore  Islam  to  its 
original  purity,  and  hostile  to  every  form  of  modern 
civilization,  the  dervishes  of  the  great  Sanusiyya  Order 
are  in  the  regions  where  their  influence  extends  the 
most  potent  force  for  the  propagation  of  Islam  that  the 
past  century,  or  perhaps  any  century,  has  seen. 

5.     Schools  and  Literature 

The  Azhar  University  in  Cairo  has  several 
thousand  students  continually  in  attendance. 
These  are  largely  from  Egypt.  While  it  is 
by  no  means  a  missionary  training  school,  the 
influence  of  so  large  a  Moslem  university  can- 
not but  be  a  factor  in  the  continuation  and 
spread  of  the  religion.  It  is,  however,  chiefly 
an  indirect  factor.  The  comparatively  few 
foreign  students  return  to  their  homes  after 
completing  the  course,  not  to  act  as  instru- 
ments in  the  spread  of  Islam  so  much  as  to  be 
pillars  "in  that  part  of  the  house  of  Islam'' 
where  they  happen  to  live.    El-xlzhar  is  known 


SINGING    AND    PLAYING    DERVISHES 

(Using  selections  from  the  Koran,  Algiers,  North  Africa). 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  35 

"less  as  a  missionary  college  than  as  a  khan ! — 
a  wayside  hostel  for  helping  poor  pilgrims  on 
their  way/'  But  the  school  has  been  a  very 
direct  factor  in  making  of  Egypt  so  strong  a 
Moslem  land.  The  education  here  is  alto- 
gether an  impractical  education,  being  based 
almost  in  its  entirety  upon  the  Koran.  "It  is 
the  Saracenic  education  of  the  Dark  or  Middle 
Ages." 

Wherever  the  Arab  goes  schools  spring  up. 
A  trader  will  not  be  in  a  region  long  before 
opening  a  school  and  calling  in  the  children 
for  instruction.  Wherever  Islam  is  found  in 
Africa  there  are  small  schools  to  which  the 
native  children  go,  thus  becoming  indoctri- 
nated in  that  faith. 

The  press  of  Egypt  is  also  of  vast  impor- 
tance in  this  same  direction.  In  1907  two  and 
one  half  million  Moslem  newspapers  and  other 
periodicals  passed  through  the  Egyptian  post 
office  to  Moslem  lands.  From  here  go  out  an- 
nually to  all  parts  of  the  world  millions  of 
pages  of  Moslem  literature,  including  the 
Koran. 

6.    Trade 

The  greatest  factor  by  which  Islam  has  been 
advanced  through  peaceful  methods  is  trade. 


36  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

Arab  traders  have  ever  been  filled  with  zeal 
for  the  Prophet.  Upon  entering  a  new  country 
nothing  is  said  of  their  religion  until  they  have 
become  established.  They  first  dispose  of  their 
goods  to  the  natives,  but  soon  are  selling 
charms,  which  are  supposed  to  avert  evil.  A 
little  later  they  will  have  the  natives  wearing 
turbans  and  long  gowns.  Then  beads  of  prayer 
are  introduced.  Soon  these  things  become  the 
fashion,  and  the  influence  widens.  Then  the 
schools  spring  up.  Thus,  under  the  guise  of 
trade,  the  cause  is  promoted.  Mr.  P.  A.  Ren- 
nar,  a  trained  Negro  lawyer  of  Sierra  Leone 
and  the  Gold  Coast,  in  a  conversation  en  route 
from  Liverpool  to  Liberia  in  March,  1911, 
stated  that,  in  his  estimation,  the  reason  for 
the  forward  movement  of  Islam  throughout 
Africa  is  commercial.  Traders  come  from  the 
Moslem  centers  to  the  north,  from  Timbuctu 
in  French  territory,  or  from  Nigeria,  and  other 
distant  places,  settle  down  among  the  natives, 
dealing  with  them  and  ingratiating  themselves 
in  their  favor,  and  gradually  causing  them  to 
feel  the  superiority  of  the  Arab.  Arabs  come 
across  the  country  from  Algiers  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean as  far  as  Sierra  Leone,  south  of  the 
Sahara  Desert  and  on  the  west  coast,  go  on 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  37 

down  through  Senegal  to  the  Gold  Coast 
and  Southern  Nigeria,  then  up  to  Northern 
Nigeria  to  the  Moslem  trading  centers  in  that 


7.    Ease  with  which  It  Is  Followed 

Acceptance  of  Islam  by  an  African  does  not 
necessarily  mean  a  breaking  away  from  native 
customs.  It  is  rather  an  addition  than  a  dis- 
placement. For  example,  while  a  Moslem  is 
allowed  by  the  Koran  (Sura  IV)  not  more 
than  four  waives,  a  native  African  may  have 
as  many  as  he  can  support.  A  religion  that 
recognizes  as  loyal  followers  all  who  will  go 
through  the  formula,  "La  illaha  ila  allah  wa 
Muhamed  errasuhl  allah" — "There  is  no  God 
but  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet'' — 
will  always  have  its  adherents.  Gratification 
in  sensual  pleasure  and  in  a  life  of  immorality 
is  sure  to  be  taken  by  such  religionists  when 
their  god  is  supposed  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
repetition  of  formulae.  An  Arab  of  evil  life 
being  asked  why  he  was  a  Moslem  replied, 
"My  parents  brought  me  up  in  this  religion, 
and  when  I  grew  old  I  found  for  myself  that 
this  religion  suits  me."  There  is  little  moral 
demand.     It  "suits"  itself  to  the  community 


38  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

and  the  people.  "It  is  tolerant  at  least  in 
Central  Africa  of  things  which  elsewhere  it 
condemns." 

8.    Polygamy 

Native  Africans  see  nothing  but  good  in 
polygamy.  The  time-honored  custom  is  diffi- 
cult of  eradication.  Objection  is  sometimes 
made  on  the  part  of  Moslem  sympathizers  to 
the  claim  that  polygamy  is  a  factor  in  the 
spread  of  the  religion.  In  comparison,  how- 
ever, with  a  religion  demanding  monogamy,  it 
is  very  evident  that  a  polygamous  religion 
would  have  an  emphatic  appeal  to  polygamous 
people,  interfering  less  with  ancient  custom. 
When  Christianity  and  Islam  are  presented 
together,  Islam  has  the  advantage  of  making 
fewer  demands,  polygamy  by  no  means  being 
the  least  advantage  in  this  direction. 

9.    Assimilative  Power 

The  Moslem  coalesces  with  any  people.  His 
is  really  a  brotherhood  idea,  joining  himself 
in  marriage,  as  he  does,  with  any  who  accept 
his  religious  faith.  ^^Equality  of  all  men  be- 
fore God  was  a  principle  which  Mohammed 
everywhere  maintained,  and  which,  taking,  as 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  39 

it  did,  all  caste  feeling  from  slavery,  took  away 
also  its  chief  sin."  "That  power  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan to  marry  into  a  race  came  to  him 
from  his  low  view  of  marriage."  This  feeling 
of  brotherhood  with  all  co-religionists  gives 
to  him  a  feeling  of  superiority  over  all  who 
are  not  of  his  faith,  and  fosters  an  arrogant 
attitude.  It  raises  him  in  his  own  thought  to 
a  consideration  of  himself  as  a  "world  citizen," 
a  most  commendable  conception  if  not  con- 
fined to  those  of  similar  beliefs.  "The  newly 
made  convert  grows  proud  and  self-satisfied. 
His  is  the  universal  religion."  "In  East  Africa 
the  Shensho — that  is,  bush  Negro — is  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  respected  Swaheli  by 
virtue  of  his  having  become  a  Moslem,  and 
makes  a  leap  forward  socially."  There  are  no 
lines  of  distinction  between  the  rich  and  the 
poor;  "nor  is  anyone  permitted  to  wear  rich 
and  gaudy  clothing  in  the  mosque.  It  is  a 
brotherhood  on  equal  terms."  While  in  Free- 
town, Sierra  Leone,  a  native  young  man,  per- 
haps fifteen  years  of  age,  stated  that  many  of 
his  people  wanted  to  become  Moslems  because 
"if  you  are  sick  they  visit  you  and  pray  for 
you  and  God  helps  you" — a  practical  result  of 
a  genuine  brotherhood. 


40  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

10.    Home  Training 
The  tenacity  of  the  people  to  hold  to  their 
religious  faith,  and  to  become  more  or  less 
active  in  its  propagation,  is  in  part,  if  not 
largely,  explained  by  the  principle  upon  which 
Christian    religionists    are    more    and    more 
coming  to  depend — the  training  of  the  child 
from  birth  in  the  tenets  of  religious  thought. 
"The  Arabs  get  their  first  religious  instruc-  ^ 
tion   diluted   with   their   mother's  milk,   and 
afterward  get  it  in  everything  with  which  they 
have  to  deal.     The  Moslem,  unlike  the  Chris- 
tian, is  faced  with  religious  problems  many  • 
times  a  day ;  in  his  food,  in  his  bath,  etc." 

11.    The  Spectacular 

This  is  no  small  factor  in  the  spread  of 
Islam.  The  forms  of  prayer,  the  long,  flowing 
robes,  the  striking  cap  or  fez  are  attractions 
to  the  simple-minded  African,  untrained  and 
incapable  of  rational  consideration  of  such 
religious  appurtenances.  A  native  goes  to  a 
service  in  the  mosque,  is  inevitably  impressed 
with  the  spectacular  in  the  forms  of  worship 
and  dress,  and  the  next  day  is  ready  to  say, 
"I'm  a  Mohammedan." 

There  mav  also  be  mentioned  here  the  in- 


V 


A    NATIVE    MOSLEM    OF   THE    WEST    COAST 


ISLAMIC  x\FRICA  41 

fluence  of  the  Hajj,  or  Meccan  pilgrimage, 
made  by  men  from  all  over  the  world.  It  is 
the  ideal  of  Islam  for  every  man  to  make  this 
pilgrimage  at  least  once.  Africans  on  the  west 
coast  will  start  for  Mecca,  be  handed  from  one 
village  to  another,  with  practically  no  personal 
expense,  and  finally  reach  Mecca.  Upon  re- 
turning they  are  regarded  as  great  men.  By 
making  this  journey  one  becomes  a  "holy  man'' 
and  ever  afterward  is  greatly  respected. 

12.    Vastness 

Islam,  with  its  two  hundred  millions  of 
people  throughout  the  world,  is  so  extensive 
in  its  reach  as  to  make  an  appeal  from  this 
standpoint.  Such  appeal  is  not  without  effect 
upon  highly  civilized  men  in  many  phases  of 
life;  how  much  more,  then,  upon  the  uncivil- 
ized who  realize  that  they  are  becoming  inti- 
mate members  of  so  vast  a  religious  body. 

13.    The  Arabic  Language 

The  Arabic  language  has  become  so  gener- 
ally the  vehicle  of  thought  in  sections  of  Africa 
touched  by  the  Arabs  that  its  presence  among 
the  natives  gives  impetus  to  the  reading  of 
the  Koran  and  the  acceptance  of  the  religion. 


42  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

Have  you  any  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  Arabic  lan- 
guage? When  the  morning  sun  rises  from  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  eager  eyes  are  straining  from  the  minarets  of 
China  to  catch  the  first  beams  of  that  sun;  and  as  they 
rise  out  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  song  goes  up,  "There 
is  no  God  but  God";  and  that  song  is  caught  up  and 
carried  from  minaret  to  minaret,  across  the  whole 
breadth  of  China.  It  resounds  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Himalayas;  its  echo  is  heard  all  over  the  plains  of 
India.  It  sounds  out  in  the  islands  of  the  Indian  Ocean. 
It  is  caught  up  and  echoed  back  across  Persia,  far  along 
from  peak  to  peak,  among  the  mountains  of  Persia  and 
Armenia  and  Nestoria  and  Lebanon.  It  is  carried  down 
into  the  great  Arabian  peninsula,  and  then  it  is  taken 
up  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  It  is  carried  to  the  head 
waters  of  the  Nile,  the  great  lake  region,  and  it  sweeps 
across  the  Soudan  and  the  Sahara;  and  not  until  the 
sun  has  set  in  the  Atlantic  are  its  last  echoes  overcome 
by  the  roar  of  the  surf  of  that  Western  sea.  It  is  a 
language  more  extended  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  and 
which  has  had  more  to  do  with  the  destiny  of  mankind 
than  any  other,  except  English. 

14.    The  Black  Man^s  Poor  Memory 

The  fact  that  the  native  so  soon  forgets  the 
treatment  received  at  the  hand  of  the  Arab  has 
been  no  small  factor  in  Islamic  advance.  The 
Moslem  interest  in  Central  Africa  was  based 
upon  slavery.  Arabs  from  the  east  made  raids 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  slaves,  securing 
the  friendship  of  certain  tribes  which,  in  turn, 
would  act  as  middlemen  for  the  Arabs — just 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  43 

as  members  of  the  Kroo  tribe  in  Liberia,  which 
boasts  of  never  having  been  in  slavery,  once 
acted  as  middlemen  for  the  English  and 
American  slave  dealers  desiring  slaves  from 
the  interior. 

When  the  European  governments  estab- 
lished control  in  Central  Africa,  the  slave  trade 
became  a  thing  of  the  past,  but  the  Moslem 
influence,  showing  its  power  of  adaptation, 
still  flourished.  With  the  lucrative  commerce 
in  human  beings  gone,  the  Arabs  made  friends 
of  the  natives,  who  soon  forgot  the  evils  prac- 
ticed upon  them,  turning  to  legitimate  forms 
of  trade  in  the  products  of  the  soil. 

There  is  a  tradition  regarding  the  members 
of  the  Timini  tribe  to  the  effect  that  they  once 
lived  in  the  east  but  came  to  the  west  coast 
in  order  to  get  away  from  the  Moslems,  yet 
to-day  they  are  largely  Islamic. 

Here  is  an  instance  showing  how,  within  a 
period  of  thirty  years,  the  Yorubas  forgot  their 
hatred  of  the  Moslems  and  became  converts 
to  that  religion : 

The  town  of  Oyo,  the  capital  of  the  Yorubas,  which  is 
situated  thirty  miles  north  of  Ibadan,  was  formerly 
situated  almost  right  up  the  course  of  the  Niger— its 
pagan  inhabitants  were  hard  pressed  by  the  invaders, 
and,  removing  gradually  down,  they  settled  where  they 


44  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

are  now.  Their  hatred  of  their  Mahometan  foe  was  so 
great  that  thirty  years  ago  they  allowed  not  a  single 
disciple  of  the  Prophet  to  enter  their  town;  to-day  a 
great  proportion  of  the  people  are  Mahometans;  they 
have  more  than  ten  mosques,  and  their  king,  who  died 
in  January,  1911,  a  respected  old  man,  was  himself  a 
Mahometan. 

15.    Increasing  Means  of  Communication 

The  partition  of  Africa  among  the  European 
powers  gives  ready  access,  by  means  of  easy 
travel  and  communication,  to  the  interior  re- 
gions of  the  continent,  making  it  easier  for 
traders  to  reach  all  sections.  This  will  be 
still  more  greatly  enhanced  by  the  completion 
of  the  Cape  to  Cairo  Railway  within  the  next 
few  years. 

16.    Governmental  Attitude 

That  Christian  governments  should  be 
giving  encouragement  to  the  spread  of  Islam 
seems  incredible,  but  such  conclusion  cannot 
be  avoided.  With  the  feeling  that  a  conquer- 
ing nation  should  appease  the  wrath  of  the 
conquered.  Christian  nations  have  been  guilty 
of  protecting  a  non-  and  anti-Christian  reli- 
gion. In  Eg^^pt  and  the  Sudan  it  has  gone  to 
such    lengths    that    Christian    employees    of 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  45 

the  English  government  have  been  compelled 
to  work  on  Sunday  in  order  tha^t  the  Moslems 
might  have  Friday  as  their  day  of  rest.  A 
writer  from  the  Sudan  is  quoted  in  the  Mos- 
lem World  as  follows: 

The  handing  over  of  little  pagan  girls  and  boys,  saved 
from  slavery,  to  the  care  of  Moslem  emirs,  with  the 
probability  of  their  becoming  Moslems.  .  .;  subscriptions 
of  the  government  to  building  and  repairing  of  mosques; 
attendance  at  Mohammedan  festivals  by  government 
officials,  as  representatives;  the  gradual  reduction  of 
strong  pagan  tribes  .  .  .  [which]  for  generations  had 
held  out  against  Mohammedan  raiders  successfully,  and 
bringing  them  under  the  rule  of,  and  to  pay  taxes  to 
these  same  old  enemies;  these  and  many  other  things 
show  the  tendency  of  the  government  policy. 

The  Rev.  J.  J.  Given,  D.D.,  at  work  in  the 
Egyptian  Sudan,  made  the  following  state- 
ment at  the  Edinburgh  Conference  in  1910 
respecting  the  Gordon  Memorial  College : 

.  .  .  that  college,  if  it  ought  to  be  anything,  ought  to 
be  a  living  testimony  to  the  life  of  Gordon,  who  was 
above  all  else  a  Christian  man;  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  I  can  give  testimony  that  the  influence  of  that 
college  is  Mohammedan  throughout.  In  the  teaching 
of  language  every  appeal  is  made  to  the  Koran.  In  the 
teaching  of  literature,  there  are  four  years  given  for 
the  study  of  the  Koran.  There  is  a  place  provided  for 
the  teaching  of  the  principles  of  the  Koran,  and  there 
is  no  provision  made  for  teaching  (Mohammedans)  the 
gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


46  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

At  the  same  Conference  testimony  from 
Northern  Nigeria  was  given : 

There  is  a  real  open  partisanship  of  Islam.  Practi- 
cally no  attempt  has  been  made  in  educational  work, 
and  that  of  missionary  societies  is  looked  at  coolly, 
or  even  thwarted.  Bolstering  up  of  Moslem  duties,  re- 
viving of  customs  which  had  been  allowed  to  lapse, 
gradual  leveling  up  of  pagan  districts  so  as  to  accustom 
them  to  Islamic  law,  all  show  the  trend  and  make  it 
obvious  to  Christian  and  pagan  that  the  British  gov- 
ernment has  no  use  for  either  of  them,  but  only  for  the 
Moslem. 

The  Conference  was  further  told  that  offi- 
cials seemed  to  go  upon  the  assumption  that 
Islam  is  the  best  religion  for  that  part  of 
Africa. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  common  statement  that  "The 
European  Powers  are  giving  the  Mohammedan 
religion  the  right  of  way  in  Africa.'' 

In  the  English  colony  of  Sierra  Leone, 
Arabic  has  been  taught  in  the  public  schools, 
and  this  has  proven  an  aid  to  the  spread  of 
the  Moslem  faith.  A  movement  has  been  set 
on  foot  to  stop  this  instrumentality  in  the 
Moslem  conversion  of  the  natives,  and  it  is 
said  that  the  officials  are  coming  to  see  the 
necessity  of  taking  a  different  attitude  toward 
Islam. 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  47 

In  Northern  Nigeria,  wlien  the  English 
secured  control,  the  natives  were  assured  that 
their  religion  would  not  be  interfered  with. 
Now  the  British  interpret  this  agreement  as 
meaning  that  Christian  missionaries  cannot 
be  allowed  among  them,  although  this  is  not 
strictly  adhered  to,  there  being  some  mis- 
sionary work  done  under  difficulty.  The 
authorities  often  make  it  uncomfortable  for 
the  missionaries  in  carrying  on  their  labors, 
and  entire  religious  liberty  is  not  permitted. 

"Politically  [this  attitude]  greatly  compli- 
cates the  problem  of  the  European  govern- 
ments as  they  seem  ...  to  strain  a  point  to 
show  them  favor  and  ...  to  keep  down 
unrest." 

Report  from  Kanshanshi,  Northwest  Rho- 
desia, says: 

The  Mohammedans  are  rather  strong  all  through  [the 
Southern  Sudan]  and  it  is  the  present  field  of  an  active 
propaganda.  That  mission,  the  United  Sudan,  has  been 
organized  to  put  ...  a  line  of  missions  right  across  the 
continent  at  that  point,  .  .  .  unexpected  hindrance,  and 
even  opposition,  has  been  encountered  by  the  United 
Sudan  Mission  .  .  .  from  the  British  government,  as 
well  as  opposition,  not  so  unexpected,  from  the  Belgians. 

The  English  government  has  sometimes 
taken  advantage  of  the  union  of  Moslem  states 


48  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

under  one  emir,  or  king,  to  make  him  the 
medium  of  tax  collection.  Pagan  districts 
without  any  centralization  have  been  split  up 
into  small  communities,  thus  producing  a  con- 
trast in  the  eyes  of  the  natives,  who  are  quick 
to  see  where  governmental  favor  is  likely  to 
be  found.  Moslem  chiefs  have  been  placed 
over  large  pagan  areas.  Pagan  tribes  that 
have  been  enemies  of  Moslem  tribes  have  been 
conquered  by  the  English  and  then  put  under 
control  of  their  hated  rivals,  against  whom 
they  had  been  able  to  hold  out  before  Euro- 
pean interference. 

Dr.  S.  M.  Zwemer  has  this  to  say  in  regard 
to  Egypt : 

The  new  Nationalist  Party  in  Egypt,  through  the 
preferential  instead  of  the  impartial  treatment  of 
Moslems  by  the  British  government,  has  everywhere 
kindled  the  fanaticism  of  unrest  and  the  desire  of  in- 
dependence. This  spurious  form  of  nationalism,  in  the 
judgment  of  veteran  missionaries  and  such  unprejudiced 
witnesses  as  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  Dr.  Alfred 
J.  Butler,  is  thoroughly  Mohammedan  in  its  character. 
In  the  mouth  of  the  new  Nationalist  Party  "Egypt  for 
the  Egyptians"  means  Egypt  for  the  Moslems,  and  its 
fatal  corollary  must  be  oppression  for  the  Christians. 

The  following  quotation  is  from  a  review  of 
Dr.  Zwemer's  book.  The  Unoccupied  Fields 
of  Africa  and  Asia : 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  49 

Dr.  Zwemer  rightly  points  out  the  terribly  significant 
fact  that  to  a  great  extent  the  main  difficulty  in  many 
fields  is  the  opposition  offered  by  European  (we  dare 
not  say  Christian)  governments,  such  as  our  own  in 
West  Africa  and  the  Sudan;  that  of  the  French  in 
Southwestern  Asia,  West  and  Central  Africa,  in  North- 
west Africa  and  in  Madagascar;  the  German  in  some 
places;  the  Russian  everywhere. 

"It  is  the  tendency  of  nearly  all  the  local  representa- 
tives of  governments  professedly  Christian,  including 
the  British  government,  to  facilitate  and  encourage  the 
spread  of  the  Mohammedan  religion,  and  to  restrict  and 
in  some  cases  prevent,  the  propagation  of  Christianity 
in  unoccupied  territory"  (p.  76).  This  was  abundantly 
proved  at  the  World  Missionary  Conference  at  Edin- 
burgh, and  it  is  a  matter  which  must  be  dealt  with 
firmly  by  the  Christian  Church  at  large.  The  first  step 
is  to  make  it  generally  known,  for  it  is  certainly  not 
known  at  present. 

An  exchange  quotes  a  Constantinople  Moslem  paper 
as  asserting  that  the  French  government  is  favoring 
Islam  all  along  the  west  coast  of  Africa: 

"Unwilling  to  leave  the  newly  converted  Moslem  black 
to  mumble  his  uncomprehended  prayers,  the  French 
have  established,  in  the  Western  Sudan,  900  Koran 
schools  or  catechetical  classes,  where,  as  in  Algiers  an:l 
Tunis,  the  reading  and  recitation  of  a  certain  number 
of  passages  from  the  Koran  is  the  only  occupation  o? 
teachers  and  pupils.  They  have  further  founded  n. 
school  of  Moslem  theology  in  Senegal.  Negro  fetish 
worshipers  are  being  converted  in  great  numbers." 

Dr.  H.  K.  W.  Kumm,  a  prolific  writer  and 
authority    on    Africa,    gives    the     foUowing 


50  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

graphic  picture  of  Europe  as  related  to  Islamic 
Africa : 

Slowly  Islam  .  .  .  spread  down  the  east  coast  of 
Africa;  slowly  it  penetrated  into  the  Congo  valley,  to 
South  Africa,  and,  in  our  days,  to  West  Africa.  But  in 
the  heart  of  the  continent  advance  was  impossible. 

Now  all  this  is  changed.  What  Mohammedanism 
failed  to  accomplish  in  its  own  strength  Christian  Eu- 
rope is  assisting  it  to  do.  We  have  brought  the  pagan 
tribes  in  Central  Africa  into  subjection;  we  have  estab- 
lished peace;  we  have  built  high  roads,  and  we  protect 
the  Moslem  trader,  the  Moslem  pilgrim,  and  the  Moslem 
teacher.  Yea!  and  we  go  so  far  as  to  send  Moslem  ad- 
ministrators to  the  pagans.  Unless  in  some  way  or 
other  this  advance  of  Islam  is  checked,  we  shall  see  the 
faith  of  the  Crescent — the  Sign  of  the  Night— dominate 
the  Dark  Continent. 

In  Europe  it  was  the  sword  of  the  brave,  in  Asia  it 
was  the  gold  of  the  weak  before  which  Islam  went 
down.  In  Central  Africa  the  pagans  have  not  the  gold 
of  Asia,  though  they  have  the  bravery  of  medieval  Eu- 
rope. But  a  stronger  than  Mohammedanism  has  come, 
the  white  children  of  Light.  They  have  roped  the  arms 
of  the  warrior  tribes  of  Ethiopia  in  the  bonds  of  peace, 
and  the  fighting  remnants  are  now  directly  and  in- 
directly handed  over  by  European  governments  to  the 
spiritual  slavery  of  Islam. 

In  Abyssinia, 

The  Mohammedans,  to  whatever  tribe  they  belong, 
enjoy  full  religious  liberty,  and  have  in  recent  years 
been  engaged  in  connection  with  the  customs,  being 
treated  in  such  a  way  that  the  common  opinion  among 
the  people  is  that  they  are  special  friends  of  the  govern- 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  51 

ment.  They  have  liberty  to  spread  Islam,  to  teach  and 
to  proselytize.  No  one  has  the  right  to  trouble  their 
converts.  In  addition  to  the  liberty  and  consideration 
given  to  the  Arabs  by  the  government  comes  this  fact: 
they  lay  special  stress  on  teaching  their  pupils  religious 
terms  and  truths;  they  have  money,  goods,  and  servants, 
and  dress  in  such  garments  as  draw  attention.  All  this 
makes  the  Abyssinians  believe  that  the  Arabs  are  su- 
perior to  most  of  their  own  countrymen. 

Occasionally  there  is  a  sign  of  a  change  in 
European  attitude  on  this  question : 

The  military  party  at  Constantinople  who  look  to  the 
Kaiser  as  "the  Protector  of  Islam"  and,  as  the  Tribuna 
declares,  the  support  of  a  nationalist  and  Mussulman 
government,  will  be  disappointed  to  hear  him  quoted  in 
the  Koelnische  Zeitung  and  other  leading  organs  (1911) 
as  saying  that  Islamism  must  be  suppressed  in  the 
German  colonies.  William  appeals  to  the  missionaries 
to  aid  in  this  anti-Islamic  campaign. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  in  this  considera- 
tion, that  a  conquering  nation  is  placed  in  a 
difficult  position  in  relation  to  the  religion 
of  the  conquered,  and  that  in  some  respects 
it  is  impossible  not  to  appear  partial.  For 
example,  in  Malaysia  it  has  been  found  that 
impetus  has  been  given  to  the  spread  of  Islam 
by  the  necessity  of  making  stringent  laws 
against  human  sacrifices  and  other  cruel  cus- 
toms.   There  being  religious  liberty,  Islam  is 


52  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

found  in  Malaysia,  and  the  natives,  not  being 
able  to  distinguish  between  the  reasons  for 
interference  with  pagan  rites  and  non-inter- 
ference with  Islam,  conclude  that  the  govern- 
ment favors  the  Moslem  religion.  In  Java  the 
Moslem  schools  have  been  placed  under  gov- 
ernment control,  and  unintentionally  the 
British  have  thus  aided  the  spread  of  the 
religion. 

It  would  seem  unwise  for  nations  to  pur- 
sue a  policy  of  favoritism  toward  Islam, 
even  were  their  character  as  Christian  nations 
disregarded.  There  is  abundant  ground  for 
the  belief  that  Moslem  zeal,  which  to-day  seems 
to  concern  itself  only  with  matters  of  faith  or 
trade,  may  at  any  moment  grasp  the  sword  in 
its  assertion  of  political  ambition.  Certainly, 
he  who  lends  the  weight  of  official  influence 
to  such  a  policy,  though  with  the  best  of  mo- 
tives, assumes  the  gravest  responsibilities.  He 
is  likely  to  awaken  eventually  to  the  fact  that 
he  has  bartered  principle  for  commercial  gain, 
and  in  securing  the  ends  of  sordid  politics  has 
forfeited  the  prize  of  noble  statesmanship. 

The  natural  consideration  of  Protestantism 
for  the  feelings  and  beliefs  of  those  of  other 
faiths  is,   of  course,   largely   responsible   for 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  53 

leniency  toward  Islam,  a  leniency,  however, 
which  is  not  suggestive  of  a  sane  tolerance, 
and  which  would  seem  to  indicate  weakness 
rather  than  strength.  Some  things  must  be 
handled  with  a  firm  hand,  and  religious  atti- 
tude cannot  be  compromised  for  temporary 
political  gain.  The  sincerity  of  the  European 
governments  need  not  be  questioned  in  order 
to  seriously  doubt  the  wisdom  of  their  attitude. 


AFRICA— THE  PRIZE   SOUGHT 

AFTER  BY  THE  PROPHET 

OF  MECCA 


55 


We  shall  have  many  people  in  that  land. — Mohammed. 


66 


AFRICA— THE  PRIZE  SOUGHT  AFTER 
BY  THE  PROPHET  OF  MECCA 

Tradition  pictures  Mohammed  as  one  day 
being  found  in  tears,  his  face  turned  toward 
the  continent  of  Africa.  When  asked  the 
cause  of  his  depth  of  feeling,  the  Prophet  re- 
plied, "We  shall  have  many  people  in  that 
land."  Were  Mohammed  to  return  to  earth 
in  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  a 
bird's  eye  view  of  the  continent  would  suffice 
to  show  that  his  prophecy  had  been  literally 
and  abundantly  fulfilled.  So  true  is  this  that, 
while  Mecca  is  the  religious  head  of  the  Moslem 
world,  Constantinople  the  political  capital, 
Cairo  in  Egy])t  is  the  center  of  culture  and 
education.  Dr.  Zwemer  designates  Mecca  as 
the  heart,  Constantinople  as  the  hand,  and 
Cairo  as  the  head  of  the  Moslem  empire.  At 
a  Moslem  conference  some  years  ago  the  watch- 
word was,  "Africa  and  Asia  for  Mohammed." 
The  desire  of  Islam  for  the  possession  of  the 
Dark  Continent  is  not  without  the  possibility 
of  realization. 

The  first  Moslems  to  enter  Africa  were  exiles 
57 


58  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

from  Mecca  when  the  Prophet  was  having  diffi- 
culty in  getting  the  people  to  recognize  his 
prophetic  call.  These  came  into  Abyssinia. 
Egypt  was  the  first  section  of  Africa  to  come 
under  the  control  of  the  Moslems.  In  the 
seventh  century  the  armies  of  Islam  extended 
their  efforts  to  the  west.  Mohammed  himself 
had  been  dead  fifteen  years  w^hen  an  army 
from  Egypt  made  a  successful  invasion  of 
Tripoli.  Eighteen  years  later,  A.  D.  655,  the 
"sectaries  and  Catholics''  invited  the  Moslems 
again  into  that  region,  preferring  to  risk  al- 
legiance to  the  Islamic  power  than  undergo 
longer  the  illtreatment  of  the  Romans.  An 
army  of  ten  thousand  Arabs  under  Akbah 
proceeded  along  the  northern  shore  as  far  as 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  there  the  leader,  urg- 
ing his  fiery  steed  out  into  the  foaming  waters, 
cried:  "Great  God!  If  my  course  were  not 
stopped  by  the  sea,  I  would  still  go  on  to  the 
unknown  kingdoms  of  the  West,  preaching  the 
unity  of  thy  Holy  Name,  and  putting  to  the 
sword  rebellious  nations  who  worship  any 
god  but  thee!'' 

Here  is  the  one  example  of  Christianity  dis- 
appearing before  another  faith.  The  Chris- 
tians who  had  invited  the  Saracen  into  these 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  59 

regions  soon  bewailed  their  sorry  condition. 
Upon  conquering  a  people,  the  Arab  demanded 
either  tribute  or  acceptance  of  Islam.  It  was 
not  long  before  every  vestige  of  the  Christian 
religion  had  disappeared  along  the  whole 
southern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean.  Within 
about  a  half  century  after  the  Arabs  had  made 
this  last  successful  invasion,  the  Pasha  Ad- 
durrahman  reported  that  the  North  African 
Christians  had  ceased  paying  tribute,  having 
accepted  the  faith  of  Islam.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, a  virile  Christianity  that  was  displaced. 
Islam,  in  the  height  of  its  military  glory,  did 
not  come  in  contact  w^ith  Christianity  at  its 
best.  As  it  sprang  up  in  the  midst  of  an 
heretical  form  of  the  Christian  faith,  so  in 
North  Africa  Christianity  was  decadent. 
Divisions  weakened  the  church.  The  supposed 
value  of  solitary  existence  in  the  life  of  a 
hermit  had  also  withdrawn  from  public  life 
many  of  the  best  men. 

The  spectacular  entrance  into  Africa  of  the 
followers  of  Mohammed  proved  to  be  of  last- 
ing influence.  Moslem  influence  has  so  widely 
extended  since  the  days  of  Akbah  as  to  make 
it  appear  by  no  means  impossible  that  the 
continent  may  some  day  be  everywhere  guided 


60  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

by  the  famed  Crescent.     As  one  travels  over 
the  continent  this  thought  is  forced  upon  one. 
A  visit  to  South  Africa,  however,  does  not 
arouse    suspicions    as    to    the    general    prev- 
alence  of   the   religion   and   of   its   continu- 
ing advance.     The  first  part  visited  by  the^ 
writer    was    Tunisia    and    Algeria,    on    the 
Mediterranean,   where   Islam   has  been   dom- 
inant for  more  than  seven  centuries,  but  it  is 
necessary   to   wait   until   other    sections   are 
visited  before  being  able  to  form  an  opinion 
as  to  the  spread  of  the  faith.    Nor  does  South 
Africa  reveal  Islamic  activity  to  any  extent. 
From  Cape  Town  fifteen  hundred  miles  were 
traversed  toward  the  equator,  then  to  the  In- 
dian  Ocean   and  down   the   east   coast   and 
around  to  within  a  few  hundred  miles  of  the 
equator  on  the  west  coast.    Few  signs  of  Islam 
are  found  here.    The  Moslems  of  South  Africa  ^ 
are  almost  entirely  of  Indian  extraction,  the 
Indian  problem  being  recognized  in  the  new 
Union  of  South  Africa  as  one  of  the  knotty 
problems  of  government.    The  Indian  Moslem, 
while  numerous,   is  not  aggressive,   and  the 
result  is  that  practically  no  converts  are  made 
'  among  the  native  blacks.    One  native  Moslem 
settlement    was    found    in    Portuguese    East 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  61 

Africa  across  the  bay  from  Inhainbane, 
at  Maxixi.  With  an  interpreter  the  place 
was  visited,  and  with  some  difficulty  it  was 
possible  to  get  one  family  together  for  a 
photograph  (see  illustration).  After  the  pho- 
tograph was  taken  inquiry  was  made  as  to  the 
girl  standing,  with  cup  and  saucer  in  hand, 
before  the  man  of  the  house,  and  it  was 
learned  that  he  had  directed  this  so  as  to 
show  that  he  was  sufficiently  well  off  to  have 
a  servant. 

Moslem  influence  first  entered  East  Africa,  ^ 
according  to  the  earliest  authentic  accounts 
available,  in  A.  D.  908  to  927.  When  the  Arabs 
first  came  into  Portuguese  East  Africa  from 
the  north,  they  gave  the  name  of  "Kaffir''  to 
the  native  found  there,  the  word  meaning  in 
the  Arabic  "unbeliever.''  This  is  the  name  by 
which  the  black  man  is  known  throughout  the 
south,  the  term  "Negro"  being  applied  more 
especially  to  the  native  of  Liberia  and  neigh- 
boring coasts. 

Evidences  are  sometimes  found,  however,  in 
South  Africa  of  a  native  Moslem  influence 
extending  down  from  farther  north.  In  Rho- 
desia native  Moslems  from  Blantyre  and  other 
sections  of  Nyasaland  are  found  for  shorter 


62  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

or  longer  periods  laboring  on  the  farms,  it 
being  impossible  to  secure  sufficient  labor  in 
the  immediate  section.  But  when  such  natives 
come  down  to  work  they  do  not  engage  in 
any  active  effort  in  behalf  of  their  religious 
faith. 

Although  in  South  Africa  the  question  arises 
as  to  why  so  much  has  been  heard  about  the 
spread  of  Islam,  it  is  quickly  answered  as 
one  gets  farther  north.  En  route  to  Liberia 
from  Europe  the  ship  touched  at  Freetown, 
Sierra  Leone.  A  mere  glance  at  this  capital 
of  the  English  colony  gives  one  to  understand 
the  hold  that  Islam  has  secured.  The  streets 
are  filled  with  native  people  whose  dress  re- 
veals their  Moslem  leanings.  According  to 
the  English  Blue  Book  Report  for  the  Colony 
for  1909  a  large  part  of  the  people  profess 
Islam,  and  the  religion  is  gaining  ground. 
Freetown  has  ten  thousand  Moslems,  for  w^hose 
worship  there  are  maintained  seven  mosques 
("prostrating  places").  Passing  along  a 
street  in  Freetown,  nine  natives  were  noticed 
sitting  on  a  bench  beneath  a  shade  tree;  of 
these  nine  five  were  dressed  in  the  Moslem 
garb. 

Northern  Nigeria  is  a  hotbed  for  Islam,  and 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  63 

in  Southern  Nigeria  it  is  gaining  ground. 
The  secretary  to  the  governor  of  Northern 
Nigeria,  in  a  conversation  on  the  sea  concern- 
ing Islam  in  that  colony,  gave  an  off-hand 
estimate  of  ten  millions  as  the  population  of 
that  colony,  of  which  he  estimated  eight  mil- 
lions as  the  number  of  adherents  to  Islam. 
Whether  the  figures  are  entirely  reliable  or 
not,  they  clearly  indicate  the  prevalence  of  the 
religion.  Sokoto,  in  Northern  Nigeria,  is  one 
of  the  important  Moslem  centers  of  the  world. 
Here  lives  the  sheik  who  is  third  in  power  in 
all  Islam,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  being  first, 
and  the  Shah  of  Persia  second. 

Liberia  has  not  yet  seriously  felt  the  grip 
of  Islam,  but  the  influence  is  creeping  down 
from  the  north,  and  the  Mandingo  tribe,  part 
of  which  is  in  Sierra  Leone,  is  largely  of  that 
faith.  Reference  has  already  been  made  to  a 
Moslem  village  with  its  Moslem  chief  two  miles 
from  Monrovia.  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  in  his 
work  on  Liberia,  gives  the  following  estimate 
of  the  population : 

Christian  40,000 

Moslem   300,000 

Pagan    The  remainder 

A  few  years  ago  Dr.  Karl  Kumm  made  a 


64  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

trip  across  Central  Africa  for  the  purpose  of 
discovering  to  what  extent  Islam  was  securing 
a  hold  on  the  native  people.  Through  certain 
regions  he  found  people  who  had  never  seen  a 
white  man.  He  reported  that  Islam  is  rapidly 
gaining  ground.  Among  the  people  visited 
twenty-one  tribes  were  found  without  any 
knowledge  of  Christianity,  among  which  Islam 
was  advancing  with  rapid  strides. 

Dr.  Edward  Blyden  says,  "Islam  ...  is 
progressing  so  rapidly  that  there  is  a  Muslem 
school  in  every  village  between  Sierra  Leone 
and  Cairo  and  between  Lagos  and  Morocco." 

The  governor  of  Nyasaland,  Sir  Alfred 
Sharpe,  has  this  to  say  with  reference  to  the 
spread  of  Islam  in  that  colony: 

Twenty  years  ago,  when  I  first  knew  Nyasaland,  Mo- 
hammedanism was  almost  nonexistent,  except  at  one  or 
two  spots  where  it  had  been  brought  in  by  the  Arabs. 
Since  then  it  has  spread  greatly,  particularly  during 
the  last  eight  or  ten  years. 

The  following  by  Bishop  J.  E.  Robinson  in 
an  article  on  "The  Lucknow  Conference  on 
the  ^Moslem  World,"  epitomizes  the  general 
situation : 

A  few  of  the  more  important  conclusions  reached  by 
the  Lucknow  Conference  may  be  noted:   First,  the  evi- 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  65 

dence  adduced  of  a  determined,  threatening  advance 
of  Islam  in  Africa  was  overwhelming.  In  the  presence 
of  this  all  minor  considerations,  it  was  felt,  might  well 
be  held  in  abeyance.  The  Conference  unanimously 
agreed  upon  a  resolution  aflBrming  its  conviction  that 
the  peril  was  so  urgent  that  Christendom  should  be 
appealed  to  to  undertake  to  meet  the  menacing  Moslem 
advance  by  a  large  immediate  increase  of  its  mission- 
ary force  in  North  Central  Africa,  the  region  most 
seriously  threatened.  It  was  recommended  that  a  chain 
of  well-equipped  mission  stations  be  placed  right  across 
the  continent  at  its  most  vulnerable  line,  the  whole 
scheme  of  the  proposed  forward  movement  to  be  under- 
taken conjointly  by  several  of  the  larger  mission  boards, 
after  careful  consultation  and  a  thorough  survey  of  the 
whole  field.  Not  only  was  there  evidence,  strong  and 
convincing,  of  the  fact  that  Islam  definitely  aims  at 
the  absorption  of  the  whole  of  pagan  Africa  in  the 
north;  testimony  was  given  that  Moslems  are  also  en- 
deavoring to  convert  ancient  Christian  Churches,  such 
as  the  Coptic  and  the  Abyssinian,  and  are  seeking  to 
win  over  churches  more  recently  formed  in  pagan  com- 
munities, notably  in  Fiji. 


THE  AFRICAN  AS  A  MOSLEM 


67 


"You  must  not  wear  our  clothes,  as  they  are  given  to 
us  by  God  to  set  forth  the  character  of  our  religion; 
and  he  gave  you  Europeans  your  clothes  to  set  forth 
the  character  of  your  religion.  You  see  these  garments 
of  ours,  how  wide  and  flowing  they  are;  our  sleeves  are 
loose,  and  we  have  easy  fitting  slippers.  As  our  clothes 
are  wide,  so  is  our  religion — we  can  steal,  tell  lies,  de- 
ceive each  other,  commit  adultery,  and  do  all  manner 
of  iniquity  just  as  we  wish;  and  at  the  last  day  our 
prophet  Mohammed  will  make  it  all  right  for  us.  But 
you  poor  Europeans!  you  have  tight-fitting  trousers, 
tight-fitting  waist-coats,  and  tight-fitting  jackets.  Your 
clothes  are  just  like  your  religion — narrow.  If  you 
steal,  cheat,  deceive,  or  tell  lies,  you  stand  in  constant 
fear  of  the  condemnation  of  God."  (A  Moslem  shoemaker 
in  Morocco  to  an  English  traveler,  a  missionary  clothed 
in  Moorish  costume.) — Islam  in  Africa,  pp.  175,  176. 


68 


THE   AFRICAN   AS   A   MOSLEM 

Religious  myopia  is  a  universal  defect. 
Failure  to  recognize  good  in  the  religious  sys- 
tems of  other  races  is  a  common  fault.  Con- 
demnation of  other  faiths  is  the  tendency  of 
all  religionists.  Various  cults  that  have 
sprung  up  within  the  present  generation  are 
ordinarily  condemned  wholesale,  but  such 
wholesale  condemnation  is  evidence  of  preju- 
dice and  of  meager  mentality.  It  would  seem 
a  universal  truth  that  any  teaching,  in  order 
to  gain  credence  among  large  numbers  of 
people  must  have  in  it  something  funda- 
mentally true.  For  example,  in  Christian 
Science,  so  called,  the  fundamental  truth  is 
the  well-known  influence  of  mind  over  mat- 
ter. 

In  the  case  of  Islam  the  fundamental 
teaching  is  monotheism — "There  is  but  one 
God";  but  the  conception  of  that  "one  God'V 
is  fatalistic ;  the  God  of  creation  is  responsible 
for  man's  conduct.  It  is  the  teaching  of  Islam 
that  each  person  is  as  God  created  him,  and 
that  every  act  is  due  to  divine  fiat.    A  story 


70  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

from  Afghanistan  suggests  the  part  that  God 
is  assigned  in  daily  activities : 

Some  Afridis  were,  according  to  their  wont,  ambushed 
near  a  frequented  highway,  waiting  for  some  unwary 
traveler  to  fall  into  their  grasp.  As  chance  would  have 
it,  a  rich  and  portly  Syed  (holy  man)  was  the  first  to 
come  that  way.  They  pounced  upon  him;  he  protested 
that  they  had  made  a  mistake,  that  he  was  no  blasphem- 
ing Hindu  but  a  descendant  of  their  own  Prophet,  a 
holy  man  whose  prayers  were  sought  by  small  and 
great,  for  did  not  all  know  that  his  prayers  were  ad- 
mitted at  once  to  the  divine  presence?  "Now,"  said  the 
unabashed  bandits,  "we  are,  indeed,  in  good  fortune, 
for  have  we  not  long  said  that  the  only  thing  needed  for 
our  mountain  is  the  grave  of  a  genuine  holy  man,  and 
God  has  sent  him  to  us?"  They  promptly  killed  the 
poor,  protesting  Syed,  annexed  his  goods  and  money, 
buried  him  with  eclat  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  and 
now  pray  regularly  at  his  tomb  for  any  heavenly  or 
mundane  benefits  they  may  desire. 

The  following  is,  also,  suggestive: 

Why  exert  one's  self?  "If  it  be  the  will  of  God,  I 
shall  yet  make  my  fortune  and  become  a  rich  man," 
says  the  trader,  and  passively  allows  his  tiny  peddling 
business  to  go  to  ruin.  "If  it  be  the  will  of  God,  we 
shall  have  plenty  to  eat,"  says  the  rice  farmer,  and 
quietly  leaves  his  unfenced  field  to  be  devastated  by 
the  wild  pigs,  and  idly  watches  the  weeds  choking  up 
his  grain.  "God  can  preserve  the  life  of  my  child," 
says  the  lazy  mother,  and  lets  ophthalmia  take  its  course 
with  her  darling.  .  .  .  And  her  child  goes  blind.  Fatal- 
ism always  means  death  alike  to  religious  progress  and 
social  development. 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  71 

Aside  from  the  fundamental  monotheistic 
teaching,  misconceived  and  distorted  as  it  is, 
Islam  is  not  without  its  good  effects  upon  the 
native  African.  Dr.  Blyden  says  in  a  letter 
under  date  of  March  22, 1911,  Freetown,  Sierra 
Leone,  West  Africa :  ^The  effect  on  the  life  of 
the  Negro  of  Islam  is  to  make  him  more  clear- 
sighted spiritually  and  more  healthy  and  vig- 
orous physically."  It  is  not  often,  however, 
that  such  a  claim  as  to  the  spiritual  influence 
of  the  religion  is  advocated. 

In  conversation  on  the  sea,  en  route  from 
Cape  Palmas,  Liberia,  to  Monrovia,  Liberia, 
with  Dr.  J.  H.  Reed,  president  of  the  College 
of  West  Africa  at  Monrovia,  the  following 
points  were  suggested  as  indicating  the  in- 
fluence of  Islam  upon  the  native  African : 

<-  1.     It  makes  him  honest. 

2.  It  has  a  tendency  to  make  him  fanatical  and  set 
In  his  ways. 

3.  It  gives  him  a  better  education,  many  of  the  na- 
tive Moslems  reading  Arabic. 

4.  "When  it  comes  to  the  matter  of  strong  drink, 
I  have  never  met  a  more  temperate  class  of  people  than 
the  Mohammedan." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Islam  is  only  be- 
ginning to  exert  any  wide  influence  in  Liberia. 
In  a  letter  from  Mr.  J.  R.  King,  missionary 


72  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

of   the    United    Brethren    Church    in    Sierra 

Leone,  West  Africa,  in  answer  to  inquiries  he 

says  in  part : 

Islam  "makes  him  a  more  sober  man.  The  Moham- 
medans of  this  part  are  not  all  teetotalers,  but  most  of 
those  of  higher  rank  are.  However,  many  trade  in  rum 
who  do  not  drink  it.  Many  of  the  native  tribesmen  who 
profess  Mohammedanism  do  drink.  Our  cook  is  one 
and  needs  constant  admonishing  to  keep  him  at  work, 
or,  rather,  from  going  on  sprees.  A  former  cook  was 
of  the  same  sort." 

Mr.  Andrew  P.  Stirrett,  of  Northern 
Nigeria,  says  that  practically  the  only  good 
Islam  does  for  the  native  is  to  make  him  stop 
drinking. 

Mr.  Cullen,  of  the  Sierra  Leone  Govern- 
ment Railway,  after  some  years  of  contact 
with  the  native  pagan  and  native  Moslem,  in 
a  conversation  en  route  from  Sierra  Leone  to 
the  Canary  Islands,  gave  the  following  in- 
fluences of  Islam  upon  the  African  of  that 
section  of  the  continent: 

1.  It  makes  him  stop  drinking. 

2.  It  makes  him  honest,  trustworthy,  and  honorable. 

3.  It  helps  him  in  his  business  life;  for  example,  if  a 
Moslem  gets  into  trouble  with  the  railway  about  get- 
ting from  the  latter  certain  things  brought  into  town 
from  the  interior,  he  will  not  talk  with  the  railway  offi- 
cials about  it,  but  will  hunt  up  the  Moslem  chief,  who 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  73 

will  go  to  the  proper  official  and  get  the  matter  ad- 
justed. 

4.  It  helps  him  in  his  general  bearing,  and  seems  to 
make  a  different  man  of  him.  Christians  and  Moham- 
medans can  be  told  by  the  increasing  intelligent  look 
in  their  faces.  They  are  superior  men.  Many  work  on 
the  railway,  the  company  being  glad  to  give  them  em- 
ployment whenever  they  can  be  secured. 

5.  The  great  weakness  and  drawback  is  the  treatment 
of  the  women,  the  men  treating  them  like  dogs.  The 
men  do  not  beat  them,  but  the  Moslem  women,  while 
they  are  well  dressed,  are  looked  down  upon  far  more 
than  is  the  pagan  woman  by  the  ordinary  native.  The 
men  will  not  eat  with  the  women,  the  women  preparing 
the  food  and  then  eating  outside. 

Mr.  Cullen  suggested  that  tlie  treatment  of 
the  women  would  cause  the  latter  to  throw 
their  influence  against  the  spread  of  the  reli- 
gion. In  a  country  like  Africa,  however, 
woman's  influence  will  have  but  little  to  do 
with  the  settlement  of  the  question. 

The  following  effects  were  suggested  by  Mr. 
J.  H.  Downes,  connected  with  the  English 
Government  Marine  Service,  Lagos,  Southern 
Nigeria,  while  en  route  from  Monrovia,  Li- 
beria, to  the  Canary  Islands: 

1.  It  makes  him  stop  drinking. 

2.  It  gives  him  a  better  education — in  a  general  way. 

3.  It  makes  him  honest.  Although  honest  with  his 
coreligionists,  however,  he  will  sometimes  take  ad- 
vantage of  a  stranger  or  one  of  another  faith. 


74  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

(A  lady  missionary  on  the  same  ship,  from  Sierra 
Leone,  said  she  would  not  trust  a  Moslem's  word  at  all, 
and  told  of  one  whose  home  was  recognized  as  a  ren- 
dezvous of  thieves,  and  upon  whom  suspicion  always 
rested  if  anything  was  stolen.) 

4.  It  makes  him  cleanly;  it  is  very  easy  to  distinguish 
in  this  way  between  the  pagan  and  Mohammedan  sec- 
tions of  a  village. 

5.  The  women  are  badly  treated. 

Sir  Harry  Johnston  gives  the  following 
effects  as  having  come  under  his  personal 
notice  during  official  residence  in  various  sec- 
tions of  the  continent: 

1.  The  Arab  "intensified  the  spirit  of  slavery." 

2.  The  Arab  seems  to  be  responsible  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  rice  and  sugar  cane  from  India;  also  perhaps 
the  cotton  plant,  as  well  as  the  use  of  various  animals. 

3.  Islam  brought  to  the  native  African  a  "feeling  of 
self-respect.  Wherever  the  European  races  have  been 
concerned  Mohammedanism  has  ultimately  resulted  in 
an  arrest  of  development.  .  .  .  But  to  Negro  Africa  .  .  . 
it  came  as  a  great  blessing,  raising  up  savages  to  a 
state,  at  any  rate,  of  semicivilization,  making  them  God- 
fearing, self-respecting,  temperate,  courageous,  and 
picturesque." 

The  English  Military  Report  on  the  Repub- 
lic of  Liberia,  1905,  says : 

The  spread  of  Mohammedanism  in  the  western  and 
northern  districts  of  Liberia,  which  is  on  the  increase, 
has  been  of  immense  benefit  to  the  country,  diminish- 
ing the  traffic  in  alcohol  and  checking  drunkenness. 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  75 

The  English  Blue  Book  Report  for  Sierra 

Leone,  1909,  states: 

The  spread  of  Mohammedanism  is  responsible  for  the 
remarkable  decrease  in  the  amount  of  spirits  consumed 
in  those  districts  into  which  it  has  penetrated,  and  ab- 
stinence from  spirituous  liquor  is  readily  observed  by- 
even  those  nominal  Mohammedans  who  know  little  else 
of  the  laws  of  Islam. 

Here  is  the  opinion  of  Captain  C.  W.  J.  Orr, 
R.  A.,  as  given  in  his  book.  The  Making  of 
Northern  Nigeria: 

The  "dead  hand  of  Islam"  is  sometimes  spoken  of, 
as  if  the  religion  were  a  blight  which  withered  all 
progress  amongst  the  nations  who  profess  it,  though  the 
Arabs  in  Spain  held  aloft  the  torch  of  civilization  at 
a  time  when  the  rest  of  Europe  lay  wrapped  in  dark- 
ness. But  even  if  it  be  true  that  Islam  lays  a  dead  hand 
on  a  people  who  have  reached  a  certain  standard  of 
civilization,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  its  quickening  in- 
fluence on  African  races  in  a  backward  state  of  evolu- 
tion. Amongst  the  pagan  tribes  of  Northern  Nigeria  it 
is  making  its  converts  every  day,  sweeping  away 
drunkenness,  cannibalism,  and  fetishism;  mosques  and 
markets  spring  into  existence,  and  the  pagan  loses  his 
exclusiveness,  and  learns  to  mingle  with  his  fellowmen. 
To  the  Negro,  Islam  is  not  sterile  nor  lifeless.  The 
dead  hand  is  not  for  him. 

Not  that  the  spread  of  Islam  amongst  pagan  tribes 
is  wholly  beneficial.  Its  appeal  to  his  sensual  nature 
is  not  without  its  effect.  The  very  civilization  which 
Islam  brings  teaches  its  vices  as  well  as  its  virtues.  But 
when  the  balance  is  struck  between  Islamism  and  pagan- 


76  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

ism,  there  can  be  but  little  doubt  which  of  the  scales 
weighs  the  heavier. 

Mr.  P.  A.  Rennar,  the  Negro  lawyer,  also 
gives  the  same  testimony  regarding  the  tem- 
perate effect  of  Islam  upon  the  natives. 

It  is  seen,  therefore,  to  be  generally  con- 
ceded that  a  greater  or  less  promotion  of 
temperance  is  effected  by  the  introduction  of 
Islam.  One  writer  gives  the  following  inter- 
esting suggestion  as  to  the  influence  that  in- 
duced Mohammed  to  put  liquor  under  the 
ban.  The  truth  of  the  inference  here  drawn 
cannot  be  established,  however,  as  it  is  uncer- 
tain that  Mohammed  ever  knew  of  the  relation 
of  wine  to  the  beginning  of  Christianity: 

The  Mohammedan  proscription  of  wine  is  commonly 
thought  to  be  moral  in  its  purpose.  This  is  not  true. 
The  Scheriat,  indeed,  has  enlarged  the  Moslem  prohibi- 
tion, making  it  applicable  to  all  alcoholic  drink,  but 
Mohammed  himself  opposed  wine  alone,  because  wine 
was  the  symbol  of  the  sacrificial  death  of  Christ.  He 
trusted  by  this  means  to  make  the  chasm  between  his 
followers  and  those  of  Christ  wholly  impassable.  Wine 
is  said  by  the  Koran  to  have  been  defiled  by  the  devil. 
Therefore  wine  to  the  Moslem  is  the  impurest  and  the 
filthiest  thing  in  the  world.  A  piece  of  clothing  on  which 
a  drop  of  wine  has  fallen  is  forever  unclean.  No  water 
can  remove  the  defilement.  It  must  simply  be  dis- 
carded for  good.  If  the  slightest  quantity  of  wine 
should  fall  upon  a  floor,  no  prayer  could  thereafter  be 


OF  THE  JINGI  TRIBE,  ANGOLA.  WEST  AFRICA 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  77 

offered  in  that  house.  One  Koran  commentator  declares 
that  if  a  drop  of  wine  should  fall  into  a  spring,  and  if, 
when  the  spring  long  afterward  dried  up,  and  was  filled 
in  with  earth,  a  tree  should  there  be  planted,  even  after 
the  lapse  of  years  it  would  still  be  sinful  to  touch  its 
fruit. 

Mohammed  saw  in  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  cove- 
nant the  central  fact  of  the  Christian  system.  Therefore, 
though  indulgent  to  all  forms  of  fleshliness  and  self- 
gratification,  he  prohibited  the  use  of  wine,  the  emblem 
of  Christ's  blood.  The  missionary  to-day  finds  in  this 
farsighted  ruse  a  serious  hindrance  to  his  work.  "In 
your  religion  the  vilest  and  most  repulsive  thing  is 
used  as  a  holy  element.  You  affirm  that  Jesus  said: 
'This  is  my  blood.  Drink  ye  all  of  it'  How  could  the 
Holy  One  of  God  call  an  unclean  thing  his  life  blood 
and  distribute  it  to  his  disciples?" 

From  the  foregoing,  however,  mistaken  con- 
clusions may  easily  be  drawn.  The  statements 
are  in  keeping  with  the  legalism  of  Islam,  but 
the  practice  does  not  measure  up  to  the  law. 
To  a  worthy  extent  Islam  has  been  beneficial 
in  checking  the  consumption  of  strong  drink, 
but  by  no  means  to  the  extent  that  some  of 
these  quotations  would  seem  to  suggest.  They 
are  doubtless  correct  as  to  certain  small  areas, 
but  to  say  that  Islam  universally  in  Africa 
has  this  sweeping  effect  is  beyond  the  truth. 
Mr.  Rennar  says  that  he  has  never  known  a 
native  chief,  or  important  native  man,  to  give 


78  ISLAMIC  AFKICA 

up  his  position  among  liis  people  because  of 
becoming  a  Moslem ;  the  native  will  accept  the 
religion,  but  it  makes  little  difference  in  the 
folloAving  of  native  customs.  This  in  compari- 
son with  the  statement  that  Islam  is  practi- 
cally synonymous  with  teetotalism  is  interest- 
ing from  the  fact  that  many  of  these  customs 
require  the  drinking  of  alcohol  in  one  form  or 
another.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Rennar  says 
he  has  known  many  cases  of  chiefs  and  im- 
portant native  men  giving  up  their  positions 
upon  acceptance  of  Christianity.  One  writer 
is  certainly  extravagant  when  he  says  that 
"  .  .  .  throughout  Central  Africa  there  has 
been  established  a  vast  total  abstinence 
society." 

In  Nyasaland  the  great  Moslem  Fast  of 
Ramadhan  is  observed  by  the  natives,  al- 
though they  may  give  no  other  evidence 
through  the  year  as  to  their  Islamic  leanings, 
aside  from  their  dress.  Nor  is  this  fast 
usually  observed  for  the  entire  month.  After 
the  fast  is  over  "they  are  often  drunk,  and 
there  is  nothing  in  their  life  to  indicate  that 
they  are  not  raw  heathen,  except  it  be  that 
they  will  not  eat  pork  at  all  nor  other  kinds 
of  meat  save  when  killed  by  a  Mohammedan.'' 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  79 

In  Sierra  Leone  it  is  said  that  tlie  Moslem  will 
put  the  native  "through  the  forms  and  cere- 
monies used  in  praying,  forbid  him  the  use  of 
alcoholic  beverages,  .  .  .  and,  lo!  the  man  is 
a  convert."  "In  East  Africa  drunken  Mo- 
hammedans, intoxicated  with  the  Negro's  beer 
or  palm  wine,  are  no  uncommon  sight."  In 
the  Yorubas  of  Nigeria  there  is  a  proverb 
which  says,  "Every  Mohammedan  makes  his 
profession  as  he  likes." 

It  is  well  to  recall  that,  although  Islam 
seems  to  have  in  part  this  beneficial  influence 
upon  the  native  African,  there  can  be  no  such 
claim  for  the  Arab  himself,  with  whom  Islam 
originated.  Throughout  North  Africa  drunk- 
enness is  common  among  the  Arabs.  We  give 
but  one  quotation  from  a  letter  from  Mr. 
J.  H.  C.  Purdon,  for  some  fifteen  years  a 
resident  of  Tunisia : 

Not  one  third  of  the  townspeople  fast  during  [the 
fast  of]  Ramadhan;  few  pray — none  regularly — and 
all  drink  intoxicating  liquors,  and  that  through  the 
influence  of  "Civilization,"  but  no  Moslem  has  either 
suflBcient  courage  or  sincerity  to  raise  a  finger  in  protest. 

If  this  is  true  among  the  originators  of 
Islam,  what  will  be  the  effect  upon  the  black 
man  when  he  learns,  as  learn  he  must  some 


80  ISLAMIC  AFKICA 

day,  that  the  rules  supposedly  enforced  in  his 

case  are  not  binding  upon  the  people  from 

whom  they  have  received  their  religion?    The 

final  attitude  of  the  native  will  be  the  same 

as  the  Arab : 

Shall  I  abandon  the  pleasures  of  the  pure  wine-goblet 
For  all  they  tell  me  about  milk  and  honey  hereafter? 
Life,  and  death,  and  resurrection  to  follow? 
Stuff  and  nonsense,  my  dear  madam. 

Notwithstanding  the  failure  of  the  Moslem 
to  live  up  to  his  teachings  in  regard  to  tem- 
perance, the  influence  in  this  direction  is 
gratifying.  The  following  pages  will  reveal 
numerous  evils  connected  with  Islam,  and,  in 
contrast,  it  is  a  relief  to  find  this  really  com- 
mendable influence. 

The  claim  is  often  made  that  the  Moslem 
tribes  of  Africa  are  a  more  intelligent  and 
niore  capable  people  than  the  pagan  or  Chris- 
tian. In  talking  with  men  from  West  Africa, 
there  seemed  to  be  a  prevailing  opinion  that 
the  superiority  of  certain  Moslem  tribes  is  due 
to  their  religion.  That  this  conclusion  is  not 
always  warranted  is  suggested  by  another 
quotation  from  the  letter  of  Mr.  J.  R.  King, 
of  Freetown,  Sierra  Leone,  under  date  of  May 
21,1911: 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  81 

Many  of  the  Mohammedans  are  far  in  advance  of 
the  native  pagans,  but  they  belong  to  the  northern  tribes 
and  have  an  admixture  of  Arab  blood.  Moreover,  they 
are  the  more  enterprising  people  who  have  left  their 
native  country  for  either  trade  or  to  propagate  their 
religion,  and  it  would  not  be  fair  to  measure  the  masses 
by  their  standard. 

The  following  is,  also,  pertinent  in  view  of 
the  historical  reference  to  tribal  character- 
istics : 

Perhaps  the  best  known  tribe  in  Northern  and  West 
Africa  is  that  of  the  Hausas,  that  brave  and  virile  race 
which  is  to  be  found  in  little  colonies  over  much  of 
West  Africa,  and  the  bravery  and  fidelity  of  whose  men 
have  made  them  of  the  greatest  service  to  us  as  soldiers 
and  policemen  everywhere.  One  often  hears  these  quali- 
ties attributed  to  the  fact  that  they  are  Mohammedans, 
but  how  is  it  that  the  Kanuris,  for  instance,  who  have 
been  Moslems  for  hundreds  of  years,  or  the  Nupes,  who 
are,  if  anything,  more  bigoted  Mohammedans  than  the 
Hausas,  have  none  of  these  qualities,  which  appeal  so 
to  the  white  man? 

The  tradition  of  the  Timini  tribe,  already 
referred  to,  which  says  that  they  once  lived 
on  the  east  coast  and  migrated  west  to  get 
away  from  the  Arab,  suggests  their  inde- 
pendence of  character  and  innate  qualities  of 
worth. 

While    Islam   has   certain   good   influences 


82  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

upon  the  native  African,  to  his  hereditary 
tendencies  must  be  ascribed  the  reason  for 
his  advanced  intelligence,  wherever  it  occurs, 
Islam  finding  this  hereditary  basis  upon  which 
to  build,  just  as  any  other  religion  would  have 
found  it  had  Islam  been  slower  in  reaching 
him. 

It  would  be  well  were  the  foregoing  refer- 
ences to  the  helpful  influences  the  whole  story 
of  Islam;  it  would  be  well  if  at  the  heart  of 
the  religion  there  was  nothing  which  does 
not  prompt  to  right  and  ennobling  conduct. 
Christianity  has  sometimes  yielded  to  an  un- 
healthful  influence  from  without;  but  in  Islam 
evil  is  found  in  the  very  woof  and  fiber  of  the 
religion.  Christianity  has  been  able  to  throw 
off  such  influences  that  have  temporarily 
fastened  themselves  upon  it,  but  Islam  is  made 
up  of  and  is  dependent  upon  such  pernicious 
teachings. 

An  Enemy  of  the  State 

Islam  is  an  enemy  of  the  state.  Lord  Cur- 
zon  has  called  it  "not  a  state  church  but  a 
church  state."  Not  only  are  Moslems  opposed 
to  any  Christian  propaganda  being  carried  on 
in  their  midst,  but  they  would  be  glad  to  be 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  83 

rid  of  all  European  influences.     This  feeling 
of  the  Arab  is  transferred  to  the  native. 

Some  years  ago  Ahmadu  Samudu,  a  member 
of  the  Mandingo  tribe  on  the  west  coast, 
gathered  a  large  following  and  carried  on  a 
"holy  war''  with  a  vengeance.  An  official  re- 
port of  his  movements  contains  the  following : 

The  people  of  the  states  to  the  south  of  Futa  Djallon 
are  pagans,  and  Samudu  makes  their  religion  a  pretext 
for  his  outrages.  He  is  desirous  of  converting  them  to 
the  "true  faith"  and  his  modes  of  persuasion  are  murder 
and  slavery.  Miles  of  road  strewn  with  human  bones; 
blackened  ruins  where  peaceful  hamlets  were;  desola- 
tion and  emptiness  where  were  smiling  plantations. 
What  has  become  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  peaceful 
agriculturists,  their  wives  and  their  innocent  children? 
Gone!  Converted  after  Samudu's  manner  to  the  "true 
faith." 

An  illustration  of  the  fanaticism  manifested 
by  the  Moslems  is  given  in  the  story  of  the 
death  of  General  Gordon  at  Khartoum.  An 
Arab  claiming  to  be  a  direct  descendant  of 
Mohammed  through  his  daughter  Fatima, 
claimed  to  be  a  "long-expected  Mahdi/'  and 
conducted  a  deadly  war  among  the  natives. 
Forces  were  sent  against  him — he  proclaiming 
himself  as  God— and  before  sufficient  rein- 
forcement could  be  sent,  Khartoum  fell  and 
General  Gordon  was  killed. 


84  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

The  Seniissi  movement  is  believed  by  many 
to  be  against  foreigners.  "As  to  Senussi  and 
his  movements,  I  am  told  he  has  agents  every- 
where in  North  Africa  and  carries  on  an  ac- 
tive but  strictly  secret  propaganda.  ...  It  is 
a  political  movement  to  sweep  the  foreigners 
out  of  Moslem  lands  and  restore  them  to 
Islamic  authority." 

Others  believe  that  the  Senussi  movement 
"is  not  a  political  movement  but  a  religious 
one.  It  has  ...  no  fighting  organization,  but 
thousands  of  rifles,  which  have  been  smuggled 
into  Africa  by  Italians  through  Tripoli,  are 
now  in  the  hands  of  the  Senussi  people,  and 
might,  under  certain  conditions,  be  used 
against  the  Christian  infidels." 

Islam,  whenever  understood  by  its  devotees,  makes 
it  difficult  for  them  to  submit  willingly  to  a  power  not 
Moslem.  Islam  aims  at  dominion.  It  proclaims  itself 
superior  to  all  religions  and  destined  in  the  end  to 
supplant  them  all.  All  this  breeds  a  pride  altogether 
out  of  place,  considering  the  present  status  of  Moslem 
political  power.  This  is  especially  to  be  found  in  the 
better  educated  portion  of  the  population. 

The  friendship  which  the  European  govern- 
ments are  giving  to  Islam  in  Africa  will  some 
day  be  regretted  if  the  Arab  succeeds  in  im- 
posing upon  the  native  in  general  his  own  atti- 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  85 

tilde  toward  foreign  nations.  With  innumer- 
able tribes  converted  to  Islam,  and  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  enmity  against  other  powers, 
it  will  be  possible  to  carry  on  such  a  fanatical 
propaganda  against  European  nations  as  to 
cause  them  not  only  much  discomfort  but  also 
great  loss  of  life.  The  Moslem,  by  the  very 
nature  of  his  religion,  cannot  be  friendly  with 
other  powers  except  externally.  Forced  to 
this  outward  show  of  friendship,  he  still  holds 
his  grudge,  hoping  for  the  coming  of  a  time 
Avhen  he  will  be  able  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
European  supremacy.  To  quote  again  the 
governor  of  Nyasaland,  Sir  Alfred  Sharpe, 
"The  movement  is  as  yet  quite  harmless,  but 
it  is,  of  course,  always  true  that  Mohammed- 
anism is  and  must  be  more  or  less  opposed  to 
European  influence."  Henry  Drummond,  in 
his  Tropical  Africa  (1888),  stated  that  "The 
defiance  of  Mohammedanism  to  the  Christian 
power  was  open  and  undisguised." 

An  Enemy  of  the  Home 

Henry  Drummond  also  says,  "Wherever  they 
go  in  Africa,  the  followers  of  Islam  are  the 
destroyers  of  peace,  the  breakers  up  of  the 
patriarchal  life,  the  dissolvers  of  the  family 


86  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

tie."  In  the  light  of  the  Christian  ideal,  it 
seems  a  strange  comment  upon  religion  to 
speak  of  it  as  an  enemy  of  the  home.  What- 
ever future  ages  may  say  of  Christianity,  they 
will  never  say  that,  in  its  essence,  it  was  in 
any  way  detrimental  to  the  highest  conception 
of  the  home.  No  worse  accusation  could  be 
brought  against  any  form  of  religious  activity 
or  belief,  than  that  it  does  not  promote  the 
highest  interest  of  the  home.  Yet  it  is  this 
accusation  that  must  be  brought  against  Islam, 
with  scarcely  an}^  knowledge  of  what  the  word 
^'home''  connotes.  The  practices  of  Islam  are 
surety  for  the  presence  of  jealousy,  hatred, 
and  strife. 

The  Koran  teaches  that  woman  is  inferior 
to  man,  and  may  be  chastised  by  her  husband 
'(Koran,  Sura  IV).  Before  the  law  it  takes 
the  testimony  of  two  women  to  equal  that  of 
one  man.  The  women,  as  a  rule,  must  keep 
well  within  the  inclosure  of  their  own  homes. 
While  in  North  Africa  in  1910,  at  a  Protestant 
baptismal  service  conducted  by  Bishop  Hart- 
zell,  there  were  present  six  veiled  Moslem 
women  (see  illustration)  of  whom  at  least  one 
had  not  been  outside  the  inclosure  of  her  own 
home  for  more  than  three  years.     The  eager 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  87 

attitude  of  these  women  during  the  service,  so 
new  and  strange  to  them,  was  an  interesting 
sight.  After  the  Turkish  revolution,  during 
which  the  Young  Turks  came  into  power,  the 
women  of  Turkey  began  taking  a  more  active 
part  in  the  empire.  The  Young  Turks  advo- 
cated the  education  of  women.  It  is  interest- 
ing, in  this  connection,  to  notice  what  one 
writer  says  regarding  the  cause  of  the  defeat 
of  Turkey  by  the  Balkan  allied  forces  near 
the  close  of  1912.  The  women  of  the  allied 
forces  were  as  essential  as  the  men  in  the 
conduct  of  the  war,  they  remaining  at  home 
and  doing  the  men's  work  in  the  streets  and 
elsewhere  in  order  that  the  men  might  remain 
at  the  front,  fighting  against  their  age-long 
enemy.  The  Turks,  on  the  other  hand,  knew 
nothing  of  such  attitude  toward  their  women 
as  to  inspire  in  them  those  sturdy  qualities 
of  character  that  would  fit  them  for  coopera- 
tion in  times  of  stress.  This  worked  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  Turkish  army,  and  was 
of  real  help  to  the  armies  of  the  allied  forces. 

While  referring  to  the  influence  of  woman 
in  w^ar,  we  quote  the  following  which,  if  it 
originated  with  the  women  of  Turkey,  suggests 
the  power  of  initiative  among  the  better  class 


88  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

of  women.  It  is  an  appeal  from  the  Moslem 
women  to  the  queens  of  Europe  in  behalf  of 
Turkey  in  the  conflict  with  the  allied  forces. 
It  was  printed  in  the  Orient,  Constantinople, 
and  copied  in  American  papers  in  March, 
1913: 

Your  Majesty  is  not  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  against 
Turkey,  which  is  accused  of  fanaticism,  but  which  has 
nevertheless  never  waged  religious  wars,  the  Balkan 
States  have  organized  a  crusade,  the  king  of  Bulgaria 
in  a  proclamation  that  has  become  sadly  famous,  having 
very  loudly  declared  that  this  war  was  to  be  the  war  of 
the  Cross  against  the  Crescent. 

Therefore,  Madame,  the  Balkan  soldiers  have  invaded 
our  country  proclaiming  themselves  the  soldiers  of 
Jesus,  Son  of  Mary,  whom  we  also  venerate  as  a  prophet 
and  whom  all  humanity  cherishes  as  the  most  striking 
personification  of  justice,  sweetness,  and  kindness. 

Yet,  what  have  these  self-styled  soldiers  of  the  Christ 
done? 

Ask  the  old  men,  the  women,  and  the  frightened 
children  who  flee  before  them  and  who  go  even  into 
Asia  to  seek  a  little  safety;  ask,  rather,  thousands  of 
miserable  persons  who  were  unable  to  flee,  and  whose 
corpses  are  rotting  in  the  mud.  .  .  . 

Madame,  you  are  a  queen;  therefore  you  have  a 
mother's  feeling  toward  all  the  humble  and  feeble  among 
your  people;  you  are  a  Christian  queen,  professing  the 
religion  of  Him  who  placed  compassion  and  love  before 
all  the  other  virtues;  and,  lastly,  you  are  a  woman  of 
the  most  illustrious  nobility,  and  as  such,  you  have  in 
the  highest  degree  the  sentiment  of  honor. 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  89 

In  the  name  of  chivalric  honor,  in  the  name  of  Chris- 
tian charity,  in  the  name  of  maternal  compassion, 
graciously  deign,  Madame,  to  hear  the  cry  of  indigna- 
tion and  despair  uttered  by  heartbroken  mothers,  sis- 
ters, and  daughters.  Deign,  in  reply,  to  raise  your  most 
profoundly  respected  voice;  deign,  your  Majesty,  to  bring 
the  law  of  Christ,  in  regard  to  the  life  of  men  and 
the  honor  of  women,  to  the  minds  of  the  infamous 
hordes  who  are  trying  to  hide  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Cross  the  most  lurid  series  of  fires,  murders,  and  viola- 
tions that  one  can  find  in  any  European  war  of  our 
times. 

In  view  of  the  inexcusable  atrocities  prac- 
ticed by  the  Balkan  States,  if  report  be  true, 
in  their  war  against  Turkey,  tliis  pathetic 
appeal,  considered  by  itself,  would  seem  to 
come  from  homes  where  purity  and  peace  were 
supreme.  But  in  the  light  of  history,  modern 
and  ancient,  it  appears  ludicrous.  If  any 
armies  have  justly  had  applied  to  them  the 
term  "infamous  hordes,"  which  these  women 
apply  to  the  armies  of  their  enemy,  it  has  been 
the  armies  of  the  "unspeakable  Turk." 

The  only  woman  ruler  in  Islam  to-day 
is  Nawab  Sultan  Jehan  Begum,  G.C.S.I., 
G.C.I.E.,C.I., ruler  of  Bhopal,  in  Central  India, 
a  district  nearly  seven  thousand  miles  square 
in  area,  and  with  a  population  of  over  half  a 
million.     She  is  the  only  Moslem  woman  in 


90  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

the  world  governing  in  her  own  right  and 
name,  and  as  she  has  been  carefully  and  con- 
scientiously educated  to  be  the  despotic  ruler 
of  her  kingdom,  and  has  traveled  extensively 
in  England  and  the  Continent,  she  is  able  to 
speak  with  authority  about  the  probability  of 
the  emancipation  of  her  sisters.  Speaking  to 
the  members  of  the  Ladies^  Club  assembled  on 
January  29,  1912,  at  her  capital — a  meeting 
from  which  all  men  were  excluded  and  at- 
tended by  women  who  strictly  observe  purdah 
— she  thus  expressed  herself: 

I  am  sure  that  our  purdanashin  [secluded]  ladies, 
even  many  of  the  educated  ones  among  them,  have  no 
idea  of  the  extent  of  the  liberty  of  the  women  of 
Europe,  and  though  this  may  be  suitable  for  that  con- 
tinent, or  it  may  be  only  the  result  of  the  teachings 
of  Christianity,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  that 
liberty  is  utterly  unsuited  to  the  conditions  of  this 
cou;atry,  and  particularly  in  the  case  of  Mohammedans, 
for  whom  the  word  of  God  will  always  continue  to  be 
the  only  true  and  successful  guide.  We  must  act  on 
the  precious  saying  of  our  Prophet  (hallowed  be  his 
name),  "Take  only  that  which  is  clean  and  leave  that 
which  is  not  so."  Mohammedan  women  should  never 
think  of  overstepping  the  limits  placed  on  their  liberty 
by  Islam,  for  the  liberty  granted  by  our  religion  is 
quite  ample  to  allow  of  our  making  sufficient  advance- 
ment and  enjoying  suitable  privileges,  and  it  will  save 
us  from  many  a  pitfall  and  blunder.  .  .  . 

I  have   to   say  with  regret  that  while  the  Turkish 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  91 

ladies  are  making  rapid  advancement  in  education, 
they  seem  to  be  just  a  little  inclined  toward  adopting 
the  ways  of  European  liberty,  and  this  gives  rise  to  the 
fear  in  my  heart  that  these  ways  may  prove  full  of 
some  dangers  to  them.  I  pray  God  that  they  may  always 
tread  the  right  path — a  course  which  will  conduce  to 
their  true  respect  and  happiness. 

Notwithstanding  her  attitude  as  here  ex- 
pressed, she  also  says  that  ^'female  education 
is  the  foundation  of  all  national  success/'  and 
advocates  it  for  her  own  people,  seeming  not 
to  realize  that  such  education  will  relegate  to 
the  past  many  of  their  age-worn  customs  now 
tending  to  deprive  them  of  their  just  rights. 

The  motive  of  Mohammed  in  sanctioning 
polygamy  is  readily  recognized  from  the  so- 
called  revelation  of  God  to  him  as  given  in  the 
thirty-third  Sura  of  the  Koran  near  the  close 
of  the  Sura : 

0  prophet,  we  have  allowed  thee  thy  wives  unto  whom 
thou  hast  given  their  dower,  and  also  the  slaves  which 
thy  right  hand  possesseth,  of  the  booty  which  God  hath 
granted  thee;  and  the  daughters  of  thy  uncle,  and  the 
daughters  of  thy  aunts,  both  on  thy  father's  side  and 
on  thy  mother's  side,  w^ho  have  fled  with  thee  from 
Mecca,  and  any  other  believing  woman,  if  she  give 
herself  unto  the  prophet;  in  case  the  prophet  desireth 
to  take  her  to  wife.  This  is  a  peculiar  privilege  granted 
unto   thee,   above   the  rest  of  the   true  believers.     We 


92  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

know  what  we  have  ordained  them  concerning  their 
wives,  and  the  slaves  whom  their  right  hands  possess: 
(and  this  revelation  is  given)  lest  it  should  be  deemed 
a  crime  in  thee  to  make  use  of  the  privilege  granted 
thee;  for  God  is  gracious  and  merciful.  Thou  mayest 
postpone  the  turn  of  such  of  thy  wives  as  thou  shalt 
please,  in  being  called  to  thy  bed;  and  thou  mayest 
take  unto  thee  her  whom  thou  shalt  please,  and  her 
whom  thou  shalt  desire  of  those  whom  thou  shalt  have 
before  rejected:  and  it  shall  be  no  crime  in  thee.  This 
will  be  more  easy,  that  they  may  be  entirely  content, 
and  may  not  be  grieved,  but  may  be  well  pleased  with 
what  thou  shalt  give  every  one  of  them:  God  knoweth 
whatever  is  in  your  hearts;  and  God  is  knowing  and 
gracious. 

According  to  Arabian  custom  and  tradition, 
a  father  was  not  permitted  to  marry  the 
divorced  wife  of  an  adopted  son,  but  when 
nearly  sixty  years  of  age  Mohammed  became 
infatuated  with  Zeinab,  wife  of  Zeid,  his 
adopted  son.  As  soon  as  Zeid  learned  of  it, 
he  divorced  her.  But  Mohammed  was  at  a  loss 
to  know  how  to  get  around  the  Arabic  custom. 
One  day  he  was  sitting  by  the  side  of  one  of 
his  wives,  when  "the  prophetic  ecstasy  seemed 
to  come  upon  him.'^  A  smile  spread  over  his 
face  and  he  said,  "Who  will  run  and  tell 
Zeinab  that  the  Lord  hath  joined  her  to  me 
in  marriage?" 

In  this  story  there  is  also  found  a  reason 


ML'LTl('<>L()lil-:i»   "I'UOBLEMS 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  93 

for  Moliammed's  directing  all  Moslem  women 
to  wear  the  veil.  His  infatuation  with  the 
wife  of  his  adopted  son  was  on  this  wise:  he 
Avent  to  the  dwelling  of  his  son  one  day,  but 
Zeid  was  absent.  When  "he  knocked,  Zeinab, 
wife  of  Zeid,  started  up  in  confusion  to  array 
herself  decently  for  the  Prophet's  reception. 
But  her  charms  had  already  through  the  half- 
opened  door  unveiled  themselves  too  freely 
before  his  admiring  gaze;  and  Mohammed, 
smitten  by  the  sight,  exclaimed,  ^Gracious 
Lord !  Good  Heavens  I  How  thou  dost  turn  the 
hearts  of  men.'  "  When  he  had  "manipulated" 
his  "revelations"  he  gave  order  that  the  veil 
should  be  worn,  evidently  fearing  the  effect 
that  such  sight  of  his  own  wives  might  have 
upon  other  men.  Mohammed  himself  gave  as 
the  reason  of  its  imposition  the  fact  that  Mos- 
lem women  were  rudely  treated  by  "disaf- 
fected and  licentious  citizens  as  they  walked 
abroad." 

While  the  Koran  limits  the  wives  of  the  fol- 
lowers to  four,  in  Africa  great  Moslem  chiefs 
sometimes  have  as  many  as  two  hundred.  But, 
as  Mr.  John  L.  Stoddard  points  out  in  his 
lecture  on  Constantinople,  "It  is  well  to  re- 
member also,  in  justice  to  Mohammed,  that 


U  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

the  law  permitting  each  of  his  followers  to 
have  four  Avives  was  really  a  limitation  of  the 
polygamy  existing  before  his  time."  Never- 
theless, wherever  one  goes  in  Africa  there 
are  found  numerous  cases  of  strife  and 
jealousy  and  hatred  in  the  homes  of  pagan 
polygamists;  and  Islam,  with  its  still  lower 
ideal  for  woman  than  found  in  paganism, 
tends  even  more  to  debase  African  woman- 
hood. 

The  following  is  a  translation  of  an  article 
especially  prepared  for  the  author  by  Joao 
Garcia,  an  old  native  man  of  Angola,  West 
Africa,  relative  to  the  conditions  of  the  native 
woman  in  Angola : 

Polygamy   in   Angola 

FROM    JOAO    GARCIA 

Causes  (on  the  man's  part): 

(a)  Desire  to  be  rich. 

(b)  Desire  to  have  large  families. 

(c)  Lust. 

He  who  has  money  will  have  as  many  wives  as  he 
wishes.  Some  have  from  ten  to  fifteen  wives;  thereby 
showing  that  they  have  no  lack  of  means,  as  those  who 
are  obliged,  for  want  of  money,  to  have  but  one  or  two 
women. 

Again,  they  believe  that  he  who  has  many  wives  will 
have  many  children,  calculating  thus:  each  wife  will 
have  four  or  five  children,  and,  though  some  die,  he 
will  not  lack  a  large  number,  if  he  has  many  wives. 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  95 

They  are  desirous  to  have  great  fields  of  mandioca, 
beans,  corn,  peanuts,  etc.,  that  they  may  have  great  fame. 
This  great  fame  of  being  a  great  farmer,  and  the  great 
fields  come  from  the  labor  of  his  wives.  He  himself 
does  not  work  in  the  fields. 

The  first  wife,  if  she  be  a  woman  of  good  standing, 
becomes  the  head  wife.  She  takes  control  when  he  is 
absent  trading,  sometimes  for  months  at  a  time.  Upon 
his  return  she  makes  no  complaint  against  the  other 
wives,  fearing  if  she  did  do  so  that  they  would  fetish 
her  and  death  would  ensue. 

If  the  man  becomes  dissatisfied  with  his  head  wife, 
he  will  give  her  honors  to  another.  She  who  takes 
first  place  is  called  "the  oldest,"  even  though  she  may 
be  the  youngest  in  age.  She  guards  his  boxes,  his  idols, 
and  his  gun,  and  divides  the  food  and  clothing  among 
the  other  women.  This  causes  much  jealousy,  envy,  and 
hatred.  All  sickness  and  death  among  the  children  is 
caused  by  some  angry  and  jealous  wife.  This  causes 
many  of  the  women  to  leave,  if  they  can  succeed  In 
having  some  other  man  pay  the  purchase  money. 

So  it  results  that  the  man  who  has  many  wives  is 
at  one  time  on  good  terms  with  this  one,  at  another  time 
on  bad  terms,  so  that  when  he  dies  some  are  sad,  others 
are  glad  that  they  are  delivered  from  his  tyranny. 

The  following  article,  also  written  expressly 

for  this  volume,  is  by  Mrs.  Robert  Shields,  of 

Angola,  for  many  years  a  missionary  in  West 

Africa : 

Polygamy  in  Angola 
mrs.  robert  shields 
Why  women  consent: 

(a)   Fear  of  being  fetished. 


96  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

(&)  Fear  of  being  left  childless, 
(c)   Fear  of  being  forsaken, 

(a)  We  were  surprised  one  early  morning  by  a 
woman's  shrieks  in  front  of  the  Mission.  Immediately 
going  to  the  place,  we  saw  a  young  woman,  bright,  well 
clad,  and  of  the  better  class  of  natives. 

She  threw  herself  upon  the  ground,  time  and  time 
again,  then  she  threw  great  handfuls  of  sand  over  her 
head;  she  tore  her  outer  garments  from  her,  and  sobbing 
most  heart-rendingly,  tore  at  her  hair.  We  asked  the 
cause  of  her  intense  grief  and  found  it  to  be  thus: 

Her  parents  had,  against  her  wish,  promised  her  as 
a  wife  to  a  man  she  did  not  care  for.  He  had  other 
wives.  She  refused  to  comply.  Thereupon  the  would-be 
husband  and  parents  procured  the  witch  doctor,  who 
threatened  her  with  a  curse  (blindness,  lunacy,  lame- 
ness, etc.)  if  she  would  not  consent.  The  dread  of  being 
fetished  was  more  than  she  could  bear.  Superstition 
at  last  forced  her  to  consent.  Seeking  to  express  my 
sympathy,  I  was  met  with  these  words:  "God  hears  the 
cries  of  the  white  woman,  but  not  the  cries  of  the 
black  woman." 

(&)  Barren  women  in  Angola  are  shown  very  little 
if  any  sympathy.  They  are  despised  and  blamed  for  their 
inability  to  have  children.  Men  will  not  continue  to 
live  with  them.  The  general  understanding  is  that  such 
women  are  fetished.  To  avoid  such  shame,  women 
consent  and  are  ofttimes  anxious  to  become  concubines. 

(c)  Often  have  I  witnessed  mere  girls — mothers  with 
little  ones.  Their  weary  looks  told  all  too  plainly  how 
their  lives  had  been  broken.  A  forced  motherhood. 
They  lack  in  judgment  and  know  little  of  caring  for 
their  infants.  Many  infants  of  such  mothers  die  for 
lack  of  sufficient  nourishment  and  care.  Such  dread 
the   coming   of   other   children   and    (gladly   consent?) 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  97 

are  relieved  when  the  hushand  seeks  another  wife.  She 
knows  full  well  if  she  protests,  he  will  withdraw  such 
support  as  she  and  her  children  may  receive. 

There  is  no  home  life  as  we  know  it.  Quarrels, 
beatings,  discontent,  envy,  and  neglect  are  the  results  of 
polygamy.  Scarcely  a  day  passes  that  does  not  bring 
some  sad  news  of  a  dissatisfied  woman  undergoing  such 
things. 

I  sought  one  time  to  release  a  woman  by  offering 
the  husband  the  amount  he  paid  for  her,  but  was  re- 
fused on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  a  bad  bargain  to 
release  one  who  was  netting  him  constant  gain. 

On  the  way  to  Angola,  in  1911,  Mr.  Ray  B. 
Kipp,  missionary  from  America,  told  of  how, 
in  1906,  he  was  one  day  talking  with  one  of 
the  boys  in  the  mission  school,  Antonio  Mat- 
theus,  and  inquired  how  it  came  that  the  boy's 
mother  did  not  live  in  the  same  village  with 
his  father.  The  boy  said  his  parents  had  quar- 
reled and  separated.  He  then  added  that  they 
used  to  get  along  nicely  together  before  his 
father  had  taken  a  second  wife.  This,  the  boy 
stated,  had  caused  jealousy  on  the  part  of  his 
mother. 

Mr.  Kipp  also  told  of  a  native  man  and 
woman  in  Angola,  Samuel  and  Marcella. 
About  two  years  before  Samuel  was  living  and 
working  at  the  mission  station  at  Quiongoa, 
and  after  being  married  brought  his  wife  there. 


98  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

He  was  then  a  probationer  in  the  church,  and 
soon  afterward  Marcella  also  joined.  Some 
time  afterward  it  was  discovered  that  there 
was  trouble  between  them,  and  on  inquiry, 
Marcella  accused  Samuel  of  seeking  another 
wife,  which  he  finally  admitted.  But  his  ver- 
sion of  the  story  was  that  she  had  complained 
about  there  being  so  much  work  to  be  done, 
and  suggested  to  him  that  he  better  get  another 
woman.  This  she  denied.  However,  he  did 
take  another  wife,  was  dismissed  from  the  mis- 
sion, while  she  remained  for  a  time.  Re- 
peatedly afterward,  as  long  as  a  year,  when 
the  matter  would  be  mentioned  to  her  she 
would  express  a  desire  and  willingness  to  re- 
turn to  him  if  he  would  give  up  the  second  wife. 
Endeavor  has  been  made,  with  but  slight 
satisfaction,  to  discover  whether  in  the  raw 
native  heathen  woman's  mind  there  is  any  real 
feeling  of  antagonism  toward  polygamy.  In 
Kanshanshi,  Northwest  Rhodesia,  it  is  said 
that  "the  very  young  girls  who  become  the 
first  wives  do  protest  against  the  husband  get- 
ting a  second  wife,  but  later  on  they  get 
hardened  and  do  not  care  how  many  wives  he 
does  have."  From  the  same  region  this  in- 
formation comes : 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  99 

I  have  never  heard  of  any  instance  where  the  raw 
heathen  have  felt  any  rebellion  against  it.  So  far  as 
our  own  experience  goes,  it  is  only  after  the  native 
women  have  come  in  contact  with  Christian  civilization 
that  they  object  to  polygamy.  Indeed,  at  Old  Umtali 
[Rhodesia]  we  found  that  the  girls  did  not  come  to  the 
point  of  wishing  to  be  the  only  wife  until  after  the 
young  men  themselves  had  fixed  their  ideals  on  one 
wife  and  a  home  modeled  after  the  English  homes  they 
had  seen. 

A  Scotch  missionary  some  years  ago  told  how  the  raw 
heathen  women  back  in  the  interior  came  to  her  with 
considerable  pity  that  her  husband  was  so  poor  that  he 
could  only  afford  to  have  one  wife.  She  said  that  they 
would  be  sure  to  lie  when  asked  how  many  wives  their 
husbands  had,  always  adding  a  few  more.  That,  I  think, 
is  the  common  attitude  of  raw  heathen  women  at  large. 

The  following  is  an  excerpt  from  a  letter 

from  the  Rev.  F.  A.  Price,  a  Negro  missionary 

in  Liberia,  dated  August  15,  1911,  at  Cape 

Palmas,  received  after  a  personal  interview 

with  him  at  Cape  Palmas,  Liberia : 

I  can  say  without  any  hesitation  whatever  that 
among  the  raw  heathen  women,  in  this  section  at  least, 
there  is  a  feeling  toward  monogamy.  The  women  here 
are  only  slaves  to  custom,  but  deep  down  in  their  hearts 
they  do  not  want  their  husbands  shared  with  others.  I 
know  a  woman  who  begged  her  husband  not  to  take 
another  wife,  but  he  would  not  agree  to  that  but  took 
another  woman,  the  wife  of  his  deceased  brother.  Then 
said  the  woman,  "All  right,  if  you  must  have  other 
women,  then  I  must  have  other  men  too." 


100  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

I  know  another  raw  heathen  woman  who  was  asked 
by  one  of  my  native  helpers  where  her  husband  was, 
and  she  replied,  "I  have  no  husband,"  meaning  that  she 
had  not  a  man  to  herself  alone,  but  one  who  was  the 
husband  of  three  others  besides  herself. 

Then,  again,  it  makes  no  difference  how  many  wives 
a  man  has,  it  is  always  understood  that  one  is  the  real 
wife  and  the  others  only  consider  themselves  his  slaves, 
and,  of  course,  are  never  satisfied. 

The  following,  then,  would  hardly  be  appli- 
cable to  the  native  African  Moslem :  "Since  a 
Mohammedan's  wives  must  all  be  treated  on  a 
basis  of  perfect  equality,  any  expense  which 
the  husband  incurs  for  one  must  be  exactly 
/multiplied  by  the  number  of  his  other  con- 
^  sorts."  In  1910  the  Rev.  and  Mrs.  W.  P.  Dod- 
son,  missionaries  in  Angola,  were  in  the  Lo- 
bollo  Country,  several  days  away  from  the 
nearest  trade  route.  One  day  Mrs.  Dodson 
was  in  one  of  the  native  huts  in  the  kraal, 
alone  with  the  women.  While  there  the  wife 
of  one  of  the  leading  men  of  the  kraal,  a  su- 
perior woman  as  far  as  the  natives  go,  entered, 
knelt  before  Mrs.  Dodson,  looked  up  into  her 
eyes  somewhat  appealingly,  with  a  peculiar 
expression,  and  said :  "It  is  nice  that  you  can 
always  be  with  your  husband ;  you  really  care 
for  each  other,  don't  you?"     She  spoke  of  the 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  101 

difference  between  their  attitude  toward  each 
other  and  the  attitude  of  the  native  man 
toward  his  wife.  This  was  the  first  time  she 
had  ever  seen  a  white  woman.  In  referring 
to  this  case,  Mr.  Dodson  speaks  of  the  woman 
in  a  way  one  seldom  hears  the  native  woman 
spoken  of,  and  which,  for  this  reason,  suggests 
that  it  is  not  a  universal  description  of 
African  womanhood.  He  mentions  her  as  "a 
rare  woman  for  natural  grace  and  beauty  of 
face  and  feeling.  But,  while  her  special 
manner  and  real  refinement  of  mind  (wher- 
ever she  got  it)  amazed  us,  there  are  many 
...  in  the  wild  bush  life  who  long  for  the 
love  engendered  by  monogamy,  which,  if  they 
were  allowed  to  have,  I  doubt  not  the  social 
and  moral  face  of  things  would  the  sooner  be 
changed.'^ 

The  ideal  of  monogamy  must  be  reached  by 
a  slow,  evolutionary  process.  "Heaven  is  not 
reached  by  a  single  bound,'^  nor  does  the 
monogamic  ideal  hurriedly  displace  the  poly- 
gamic. That  this  ideal  is  gaining  ground  in 
nations  where  it  has  not  obtained  is  suggested 
by  a  report  that  comes  from  Japan,  that  the 
new  emperor  of  his  own  choice  is  a  monog- 
amist,   and   this   with    the   approval    of   his 


102  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

father  before  the  latter's  death,  although  his 
father  had  a  large  harem. 

We  close  this  section  with  a  quotation  from 
Mr.  H.  K.  W.  Kumm's  work  on  Khont-Hon- 
Nofer,  The  Lands  of  Ethiopia: 

The  European  who  sees  the  Mohammedan  devotee  at 
prayer  in  the  railway  stations  of  Egypt,  and  in  the 
highways  and  byways,  receives  the  impression  that  the 
Moslem  who  so  thoroughly  believes  in  his  religion  must 
surely  be  a  good  man.  He  will  think  somewhat  differ- 
ently should  he  happen,  in  Tripoli  or  certain  parts  of 
Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  to  get  into  the  way  of  the  Mo- 
hammeds,  the  Alls,  the  Abdullahs,  who  have  little  or 
no  restraint  placed  upon  them  by  European  Christian 
police. 

If  the  Christian  admirer  of  Mohammedanism  has  his 
wife  or  mother  treated  the  way  Christian  women  have 
been  treated,  not  once,  but  many  times,  by  the  religious 
Moslem  in  the  near  East;  if  he  has  seen  the  pious  Abu- 
Bekar  expectorate  on  his  wife  and  call  his  mother  "a 
daughter  of  a  dog,"  I  hardly  think  that  he  will  be  much 
impressed  in  the  days  to  come  by  the  prayers  of  Abu- 
Bekar  or  Muhamed. 

A  Detriment  to  Moral  Growth 

The  moral  and  spiritual  influences  of  a  reli- 
gion which  is  an  enemy  of  both  state  and  home 
are  necessarily  negative.  In  these  facts  are 
recognized  a  real  detriment  to  moral  growth 
and  a  real  hindrance  to  spiritual  thought. 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  103 

In  answer  to  a  question  as  to  whether  the 
native,  upon  acceptance  of  Islam,  feels  any 
added  moral  responsibility,  Mr.  P.  A.  Rennar 
said,  ^'I  should  scarcely  say  so/'  Rather  does 
he  take  up  with  the  religion  because  of  some 
personal  benefit  to  be  derived.  Major  Le 
Mesurier,  government  official  in  Sierra  Leone, 
gave  expression  to  the  same  thought  of  their 
often  being  influenced  by  some  ulterior  mo- 
tive. After  speaking  of  the  effect  of  polygamy 
and  the  condition  which  it  produces  in  the 
home,  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Springer  says,  "The 
natural  result  of  this  attitude  of  mind  is,  of 
course,  a  state  of  very  low  and  loose  morals 
at  best." 

The  presence  of  paganism  in  the  forms  of 
Islam  prevalent  throughout  Africa  also  sug- 
gests a  detriment  to  morals :  "The  most  solemn 
oath  at  present  for  all  nonpagan  natives  is  on 
Mohammedan  bread  and  the  Koran.  The 
bread  is  made  by  a  priest,  this  is  eaten  at  the 
time  of  taking  the  oath  on  the  Koran,  some 
words  are  written  on  paper  in  Arabic,  the 
paper  is  burnt  and  the  ashes  are  mixed  with 
the  bread." 

In  sections  of  the  continent  charms  are  sold 
by  the  Moslem  teachers,  and  these  are  worn 


104  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

by  the  natives,  who  are  led  to  believe  that  they 
are  thus  protected  from  harm.  This  is  strictly 
forbidden  by  the  Koran.  In  times  of  war  these 
charms  or  amulets  are  supposed  to  be  a  guar- 
antee of  protection  from  danger.  Sometimes 
choice  passages  of  the  Koran  will  be  inclosed 
in  some  ornamental  piece  of  leather  and 
fastened  to  a  portion  of  the  horse's  bridle  or 
strappings  to  serve  as  a  protection,  supposedly 
making  it  invulnerable. 

The  claims  made  by  Moslem  teachers,  and 
the  power  which  they  readily  secure  over  the 
simple  native,  are  suggested  by  the  following 
recited  by  an  English  captain  from  Sierra 
Leone  en  route  from  Monrovia,  Liberia,  to  Las 
Palmas,  Canary  Islands,  in  March,  1911.  The 
lack  of  moral  teaching  is  evident:  A  Murre- 
man,  or  Moslem  teacher,  came  into  a  certain 
village  and  made  his  home  there  for  some 
weeks.  He  compelled  the  chief  to  give  him 
presents,  cattle,  sheep,  etc.  These  were  given 
because  the  teacher  said  that  otherwise  he 
would  bring  a  curse  upon  him.  Finally  the 
chiefs  boy  came  to  the  captain  with  the  story. 
The  captain  said  they  were  rather  careful 
about  how  they  treated  the  Moslems  on  ac- 
count of  their  influence,  but  he  took  the  Mur- 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  105 

reman,  had  him  tied  to  a  tree  and  given 
seventy-two  lashes.  As  one  lash  was  adminis- 
tered one  of  the  animals  would  be  led  back. 
The  Murreman  was  then  thrown  across  the 
French  border.  He  had  demanded  one  hun- 
dred cows  and  was  going  to  stay  until  he  got 
them. 

Of  the  Nupe  tribe  on  the  Niger,  it  is  said 
that  "Mohammedanism  has  introduced  no  new 
manufactures,  has  drenched  the  country  with 
blood,  has  destroyed  numberless  towns  and 
villages,  and  has,  as  far  as  one  can  learn,  dis- 
tinctly lowered  the  morals  of  the  people." 

A  Hindrance  to  Spiritual  Thought 

In  order  to  provide  a  real  basis  for  spiritual 
growth  there  must  be  right  conceptions  of  God. 
This  the  Moslem  religion  does  not  provide. 
"The  Muslem's  idea  of  God  is  that  of  a  Being 
too  exalted  to  have  any  relations  w^ith  his 
creatures.''  "The  words  which  describe  God 
and  man  in  their  relation  to  each  other  are 
master  and  slave." 

One  of  the  outstanding  facts  in  reference  to 
God  is  the  fatalistic  idea  of  predestination. 
Christianity  believes  that  right  is  right,  not 
because  of  the  divine  fiat  but  because  of  its 


106  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

own  content.  God  cannot  posit  a  certain 
course  of  conduct  as  evil  and  make  it  so,  or 
designate  another  course  of  action  as  right  and 
by  that  place  it  in  the  category  of  things  per- 
missible. Islam,  however,  believes  that  right 
is  right  because  of  divine  declaration.  What- 
ever happens  of  good  or  evil  happens  by  divine 
decree.  The  details  of  man's  life  are  mapped 
out  for  him  and  he  has  no  control  over  his 
destiny.  "It  has  .  .  .  been  observed  that  the 
belief  in  predestination,  which  was  a  promi- 
nent feature  in  African  Christianity  before  it 
w^as  reasserted  with  fresh  emphasis  by  the 
Moslems,  has  an  unusually  strong  hold  of  the 
minds  of  the  people  to  this  day,  and  makes 
them  indisposed  to  take  any  measures  for  the 
preservation  of  life.'' 

On  June  11,  1913,  Shefket  Pasha,  the  Grand 
Vizier  of  Turkey,  was  slain  by  an  enemy  of 
the  Young  Turk  party.  Shefket  Pasha  was 
an  indefatigable  worker,  and  as  war  minister 
had  labored  incessantly  for  the  success  of  his 
party  and  the  nation.  In  the  midst  of  the 
campaigns,  it  is  said,  his  friends  urged  him  to 
escape  from  Constantinople  by  flight.  But, 
being  a  fatalist,  he  refused,  giving  as  his 
reason,  "What  God  wills  will  be." 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  107 

While  in  Algiers,  in  1910,  a  Mr.  Blaekmore, 
who  had  long  been  in  North  Africa,  related 
how  he  had  one  day  been  visited  by  an  Arab. 
After  the  Arab  had  gone  he  missed  something 
from  the  table,  and  being  positive  that  the 
fellow  had  it,  followed  him  and  accused  him 
of  taking  the  article.  The  man  denied,  where- 
upon Mr.  Blaekmore  reached  down  into  the 
man's  burnous,  or  flowing  Arab  clothes,  and 
pulled  out  the  missing  article.  Thereupon  the 
Arab  simply  pointed  upward  and  said, 
"Allah,"  as  much  as  to  say,  "Allah  did  it.'' 

Mr.  Andrew  P.  Stirrett,  of  Northern  Ni- 
geria, related  the  following  incident :  A  native 
Moslem  of  the  Hausa  tribe  stole  a  pair  of 
scales  from  him,  which  were  found  on  the 
man's  person.  For  this  he  w^as  sent  to  prison, 
and  when  released  one  of  the  chief  Moslem 
men  in  that  community  said,  "God  made  him 
a  thief;  he  could  not  help  it."  A  native  Mos- 
lem was  once  in  Mr.  Stirrett's  house,  and 
while  they  were  talking  together  the  man 
laughed,  and  in  explanation  of  his  impudence 
said,  "God  made  me  laugh." 

The  difference  between  [Christianity  and  Islam]  Is 
the  difference  between  their  respective  ideas  of  the 
character  of   God.     However  subtly  Moslem  scholastic 


108  ISLAMIC  AFKICA 

divines  may  have  constructed  their  theology  or  doctrine 
of  God,  however  high  their  speculations  may  have  flown, 
and  however  grand  some  of  their  conceptions  may  have 
been — yet  the  impression  left  on  the  mind  after  a 
careful  study  of  the  Koran  and  traditions,  or  reported 
sayings  of  Mohammed,  coincides  with  the  popular  Mos- 
lem idea  of  God.  Every  attribute  seems  swallowed  up 
in  those  of  Absolute  Power  and  Irresistible  Will.  To 
quote  an  authority:  "The  sole  power,  the  sole  motor, 
movement,  energy,  and  deed,  is  God;  the  rest  is  down- 
right inertia,  and  mere  instrumentality,  from  the  highest 
archangel  down  to  the  simplest  atom  of  creation.  The 
system,  for  the  want  of  a  better  name,  may  be  called 
Pantheism  of  Force,  or  of  Act,  in  which  all  is  exclusively 
assigned  to  God,  who  absorbs  it  all,  exercises  it  all,  and 
to  whom  alone  it  can  be  ascribed,  whether  for  preserving 
or  destroying,  for  relative  evil  or  for  equally  relative 
good — relative  because  it  is  clear  that  in  such  a  theology 
no  place  is  left  for  absolute  good  or  evil,  reason  or 
extravagance;  all  is  abridged  in  the  autocratical  will 
of  the  One  Great  Agent." 

God's  absolute  indifference  to  man's  state 
is  suggested  by  the  following  tradition: 

When  God  resolved  to  create  the  human  race,  he 
took  into  his  hands  a  mass  of  earth,  the  same  whence 
all  mankind  were  to  be  formed,  and  in  which  they, 
after  a  manner,  preexisted;  and  having  then  divided 
the  clod  into  two  equal  portions,  he  threw  the  one  half 
into  hell,  saying,  "These  to  eternal  fire,  and  I  care  not," 
and  projected  the  other  half  into  heaven,  adding,  "and 
these  to  paradise,  and  I  care  not." 

The  fanaticism  of  the  Moslem  is  greatest 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  109 

among  the  Arabs.  An  inexplicable  enthusiasm 
is  a  chief  characteristic.  This  unbounded  en- 
thusiasm on  the  part  of  certain  followers  of 
Islam  is  referred  to  as  follows  by  one  who  has 
had  close  contact  with  the  religion  in  Egypt : 

.  .  .  there  are  marked  differences  between  the  Egyp- 
tian and  many  of  the  peoples  of  North  Africa,  who  live 
in  an  entirely  different  environment.  The  people  of 
the  Barbary  States  are,  in  most  cases,  a  free,  unfettered 
people,  and  have  been  so  for  ages.  The  Egyptians 
have  for  not  less  than  three  thousand  years  bowed 
their  necks  to  the  yoke  of  foreigners.  In  the  case  of  the 
peoples  to  the  west  of  Egypt,  they  are  living  either  in 
the  desert  or  just  adjacent  to  it.  They  have  very  few 
facilities  for  becoming  engrossed  in  agriculture,  manu- 
facture, commerce,  or  the  arts  of  civilization.  The  result 
is  that  they  become  contemplative;  the  stars  and  planets, 
the  stillness  of  the  desert  days  and  nights,  no  doubt 
seem  often  more  real  to  them  than  they  are,  and  im- 
agination and  thought  must  react  upon  them,  just  as 
they  did  in  the  case  of  Mohammed  himself.  Sounds 
become  voices,  within  or  without.  History  and  science 
are  not  brought  to  bear  upon  their  conclusions  as  tests, 
and  they  are  carried  away  with  the  rush  of  contempla- 
tion. 

The  tendency  wherever  Islam  goes  is  in  the 
same  fanatical  direction,  although  carried  to 
the  extreme  among  the  blood  followers  of  the 
Prophet. 

Considering  the  Moslem  misconceptions  of 
God,  with  an  emphatic  tendency  in  the  direc- 


110  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

tion  of  fanaticism,  based  upon  blind  "submis- 
sion to  the  will  of  God/'  one  looks  in  vain  for 
inspiration  to  real  spiritual  thought  in  the 
doctrines  of  Islam. 

Not  a  Substitute  for  Nor  a  Stepping-Stone 
TO  Christianity 

The  thought  is  sometimes  expressed  that 
Islam,  with  its  inclusion  of  the  Christ  as  a 
prophet,  withal  of  lower  grade  than  Moham- 
med, its  dependence  upon  the  Bible,  and  in 
particular  its  emphasis  upon  monotheism,  is 
really  a  stepping-stone  to  Christianity;  and 
that  Islam  is  a  religion  suited  to  the  African 
people  because  it  is  easier  for  them  to  adapt 
themselves  to  it,  with  its  lesser  degree  of  de- 
mands upon  the  person.  Mr.  P.  A.  Eennar 
was  of  this  opinion,  and  in  support  of  his  con- 
tention cited  the  case  of  a  semieducated  Negro 
by  the  name  of  Attah,  who  at  one  time  seemed 
to  have  taken  up  very  definitely  with  Islam, 
but  in  later  years  has  ceased  his  connection 
with  the  followers  of  that  religion,  and  seems 
more  inclined  to  become  a  Christian.  Dr. 
Blyden,  also,  shares  this  idea. 

This,  however,  is  not  the  general  thought, 
and  can  hardly  be  accepted  in  view  of  what 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  111 

has  preceded  as  to  Islamic  tendencies.  It  is 
difficult  to  conceive  how  Islam  can  be  a  step- 
ping-stone to  Christianity  when  it  is  distinctly 
anti-Christian;  it  is  far  more  than  non-Chris- 
tian. The  Koran  is  considered  as  a  revelation 
from  God,  superseding  the  Christian  revela- 
tion as  Christianity  superseded  Judaism.  It 
is,  therefore,  a  step  backward  to  take  up  with 
a  religion  that  has  been  superseded  by  Islam ! 
Its  misconceptions,  its  "denials,  perversions, 
and  misrepresentations  of  Christianity,"  its 
fatalistic  tendencies,  its  spirit  of  fanaticism 
preclude  any  possibility  of  its  being  a  stepping- 
stone  to  Christianity;  and  that  it  could  be  a 
substitute  for  Christianity  is  beyond  all  reason. 
It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  to  find  in  the 
literature  on  the  subject  such  references  as 
these : 

When  work  has  been  attempted  among  pagans,  touched 
by  Moslem  influence,  the  results  have  been  startlingly 
small. 

.  .  .  once  the  heathen  have  become  even  in  name 
Moslem,  our  great  opportunity  is  past;  there  is  no 
longer  an  open  mind. 

When  once  claimed  by  Moslems  these  tribes  [of  the 
Sahara  Desert]  will  be  ten  times  more  diflBicult  to  reach 
with  the  gospel. 

We  are  clearly  of  opinion  that  adoption  of  the  faith 
of  Islam  by  pagan  people  is  in  no  sense  whatever  a 


112  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

stepping-stone  toward,  or  a  preparation  for,  Christianity, 
but  exactly   the   reverse. 

A  religion  with  "the  firstborn  son  of  Satan," 
as  Luther  designated  Mohammed,  as  its 
founder,  a  religion  that  is  an  enemy  of  the 
state,  an  enemy  of  the  home,  that  makes  but 
little  moral  demand,  and  furnishes  so  meager 
a  basis  for  spiritual  growth;  a  religion  that 
"has  been  weighed  in  the  balances  and  proved 
to  be  wanting  in  all  that  makes  for  spiritual 
regeneration,  spiritual  renewal,  and  spiritual 
development,"  is  inconceivable  as  a  substitute 
for  or  a  stepping-stone  to  the  acceptance  of 
the  purity  and  spiritual  values  of  Christianity. 


A  CHOPI  WOMAN 


THE  DEFEAT  OF  ISLAM  IN  AFRICA 

NECESSARY  FOR  THE  GREATEST 

FUTURE  OF  THE  BLACK  MAN 


113 


Writ  wide  across  the  pages 

Of  continents  outspread, 
The  desert  track  of  ages 

Lies  whitened  with  our  dead; 
Through  weary  years  of  travel 

We  seek  the  Prophet's  tomb. 
Nor  find  the  Haj  unravel 

Life's  mystery  and  gloom. 

— H.  K.   W.  Kumm,  Khont-Hon-Nofer. 


114 


THE    DEFEAT    OF    ISLAM    IN    AFKICA 

NECESSARY  FOR  THE  GREATEST 

FUTURE  OF  THE  BLACK  MAN 

From  all  that  has  preceded,  it  follows  that 
the  defeat  of  Islam  in  Africa  is  essential  for 
the  greatest  future  of  the  black  man.  Whether 
or  not  Bishop  Wilson  is  correct  in  saying, 
while  he  was  making  a  study  of  religious  con- 
ditions in  Africa  on  a  tour  with  Bishop  Hart- 
zell  in  1911,  that  the  winning  of  Africa  for 
Christianity  "will  never  come  to  pass  until 
the  Mohammedans  make  some  suicidal  blun- 
der,''  this  remark  does  emphasize  the  impor- 
tance of  the  struggle  which  the  Moslems  are 
putting  forth  for  the  conquest  of  the  con- 
tinent. 

The  seriousness  of  the  situation  is  evident. 
From  a  religious  standpoint  one  cannot  but 
oppose  the  Moslem  advance.  This  is  for  the 
highest  good  of  the  native.  There  may  be 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  how  his  religious 
nature  should  be  developed,  but  that  Christian 
ideals  must  obtain  is  self-evident.  In  coming 
115 


116  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

in  contact  with  other  religions,  though  pos- 
sessing admirable  points,  they  must  be 
superseded  as  religious  systems.  The  great- 
est development  of  the  human  race  de- 
mands it.  This  is  the  reason  for  the  at- 
tempt to  prevent  Islam  from  gaining  the 
ascendancy  over  the  native  African.  It  does 
not  aid  in  his  highest  development.  Its  ten- 
dency is  downward  and  degrading,  and  against 
truth  and  liberty.  To  say  that  it  is  best  to  let 
the  native  go  on  his  way  without  others'  con- 
cern, and  that  later,  when  in  a  more  fitting 
state  to  receive  the  idealistic  teachings  of 
Christianity,  will  be  time  enough  to  think  of 
missionary  propaganda  in  the  Dark  Continent, 
is  as  unreasonable  as  to  advocate  letting  child- 
hood run  riot  in  earlier  years  in  order  that 
there  may  be  appreciation  of  the  advantages 
of  right  living  in  later  life.  "Spare  the  rod 
and  spoil  the  child"  may  be  paraphrased  with 
reference  to  the  native  African,  "Spare  Chris- 
tian ideals  and  lose  the  native  to  Moslem 
fanaticism."  Or,  to  the  Christian  apologist, 
"Speak  not  of  the  greatest  Teacher  of  morality 
the  ages  have  known,  but  abandon  those  who 
are  incapable  of  taking  care  of  themselves  to 
the  teachings  and  ideals  of  one  of  the  lowest 


ISLAMIC  AFRICA  117 

and  most  degrading  religious  teachers  man- 
kind has  ever  had  to  endure." 

Islam's  relation  to  woman  should  be  suffi- 
cient to  arouse  all  who  are  interested  in  the 
advancement  of  the  human  race  to  put  forth 
all  effort  to  stop  its  progress.     The  position 
given  woman,  in  this  world  and  the  next,  is 
humiliating.      Its   polygamous   ideals   should 
make  every  lover  of  equal  rights  for  all  an  em- 
phatic enemy  to  the  progress  of  a  religion 
which  holds  woman  in  such  debasing  condi- 
tions.   Woman  can  never  come  to  her  rights 
under  the  Moslem  faith.     If  it  is  said  that 
Islam  is  "good  for  the  native,''  it  is  putting 
the  lower  ideals  above  the  higher  ethical  and 
religious  conceptions,  and  taking  from  woman 
her  inalienable  right.    Polygamy  is  one  of  the 
basic  principles  of  Islam.     That  polygamy  is 
not  the  highest  ideal  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  as  races  advance  in  civilization  the  idea 
of  polygamy  becomes  abhorrent.    Woman,  in 
her  highest  ideals  and  loves,   recoils  at  the 
thought.     The  wife  of  a  prominent  and  edu- 
cated black  man  is  said  to  have  left  him  be- 
cause   of   his    polygamous    propensities.      Of 
course  it  would  be  said  that  she  is  the  product 
of  America  and  Europe.    This  strengthens  the 


118  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

point,  however,  for  this  very  fact  is  an  illus- 
tration of  the  feelings  aroused  whenever  civil- 
ization is  given  the  right  of  way.  If  monog- 
amy is  the  ideal  at  which  the  world  aims, 
then  this  highest  ideal  will  never  be  realized 
by  saying  nothing  about  it.  It  is  far  more 
the  part  of  wisdom  to  present  the  highest  ideals 
to  the  African  now,  although  they  cannot  be 
immediately  realized.  "Hitch  your  wagon  to 
a  star''  is  common  sense  when  dealing  with 
racial  as  well  as  with  individual  ideals. 

If  the  third  main  division  of  this  work  is  cor- 
rect, the  conclusion  logically  follows.  If  Islam 
is  an  enemy  of  civilization,  a  forerunner  of 
political  trouble ;  if  it  is  an  enemy  of  the  home 
and  degrading  to  womanhood;  if  it  results  in 
fanaticism,  and  is  detrimental  to  moral  growth 
and  spiritual  thought,  certainly  its  defeat  in 
Africa  is  necessary  for  the  greatest  future  of 
the  black  man. 

If  Islam  is  not  defeated  in  Africa,  the  coun- 
try may  be  developed,  but  the  "man''  is  in 
greater  need  of  development  than  the  country. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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important  facts  and  figures  have  been  derived.  To  the 
books,  pamphlets,  and  persons  named  in  the  accompany- 
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119 


120  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

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ISLAMIC  AFRICA  121 

English  Military  Report  on  the  Republic  of  Liberia,  1905. 
Polygamy   in  Angola,   Joao   Garcia,   a   native  of   West 

Africa. 
Polygamy  in  Angola,  Mrs.  Robert  Shields. 
Sermon   by   the  Rev.   Percy   Smith,   B.D.,   Constantine, 

North  Africa. 
Special  Notes  for  this  work  by  the  Rev.  Percy  Smith, 

B.D.,  Constantine,  North  Africa. 
Newspaper  Interview,  Sir  Alfred  Sharpe,  Governor  of 

Nyasaland. 

III.     Personal  Interviews  with  the  Following 

P.  A.  Rennar,  Negro  Lawyer  of  Sierra  Leone  and  the 

Gold  Coast,  educated  in  the  Universities  of  Europe. 
Mr.  Farrar,  of  the  West  Coast. 
J.  H.  Reed,  D.D.,  President  of  College  of  West  Africa, 

Monrovia,  Liberia. 
Mr.  Cullen,  of  the  Government  Railway,  Sierra  Leone, 

West  Africa. 
J.  H.  Downes,  of  the  Government  Marine  Service,  Lagos, 

West  Africa. 
Major  F.  N.  Le  Mesurier,  of  the  English  Army. 
Frederick  Roesch,  Ph.D.,  Missionary  and  German  Army 

Officer,  Algiers,  North  Africa. 
Ray  B.  Kipp,  Missionary,  Angola,  West  Africa. 
F.  A.  Price,  Negro  Missionary,  Liberia. 
Mr.  Blackmore,  Missionary,  Algiers,  North  Africa. 
Andrew  P.  Stirrett,  M.D.,  Medical  Missionary,  Northern 

Nigeria. 
W.  C.  Terril,  Missionary,  Inhambane,  Portuguese  East 

Africa. 
E.  F.  Frease,  D.D.,  Missionary,  Algiers,  North  Africa. 
J.   A.   Simpson,   D.D.,  Minister  Afro-American   Church, 

Monrovia,  Liberia. 


122  ISLAMIC  AFRICA 

IV.     Correspondence  with  the  Following 

William    Flint,    D.D.,    Parliamentary    Librarian,    Cape 

Town,  South  Africa. 
George    A.    Chamberlain,    American    Consul,    Lourenco 

Marques,  Portuguese  East  Africa. 
Guy    B.    Simeon,    for    Government    Secretary,    Maseru, 

Basutoland,  South  Africa. 
A.  Camp,  Acting  Under-Secretary  for  the  Interior,  Union 

of  South  Africa. 
Edward  W.  Blyden,  LL.D. 
J.   H.   C.    Purdon,   Missionary    (Irish   Lawyer),   Tunis, 

North  Africa. 
Jas.  L.  Lochhead,  Missionary,  Constantine,  North  Africa. 
W.  E.  Lowther,  Ph.D.,  Missionary,  Oran,  North  Africa. 
George   Lowe,   Representative   of   British   and   Foreign 

Bible  Society,  Johannesburg,  South  Africa. 
M.    Moffat,    Missionary,    Serenge,   Northwest  Rhodesia, 

South  Africa. 
John  M.  Springer,  Missionary,  Kanshanshi,  Northwest 

Rhodesia. 
W.  A.  Phillips,  Missionary,  Northwest  Rhodesia,  South 

Africa. 
J.  R.  King,  Missionary,  Sierra  Leone,  West  Africa. 
F.  A.  Price,  Colored  Missionary,  Liberia,  West  Africa. 
W.  P.  Dodson,  Missionary,  Angola,  West  Africa  (Lobollo 

Country). 
R.   S.   McClenahan,   President  Assiut  Training  School, 

Egypt. 


INDEX 


123 


INDEX 


Abyssinia,  29,  50,  58. 

Africa,  the  prize  sought  after 
by  the  Prophet  of  Mecca, 
55. 

Africa  divided  among  Euro- 
pean powers,  44. 

African  as  a  Moslem,  the,  67. 

Akbah,  an  early  leader  in 
North  Africa,  58,  59. 

Algeria,  60,  107. 

Angola,  94,  95,  97,  100. 

Arabic  language,  41,  46. 

Bibhography,  119. 
Book  in  Brief,  the,  5. 
Brotherhood  in  Islam,  38,  39. 

Cairo,  57. 

Central  Africa,  50,  64,  65,  78. 

Christianity  and  Islam,  rela- 
tion between,  25,  107,  110. 

Christianity  disappearing  be- 
fore Islam,  58. 

Constantinople,  57. 

Converts  to  Islam,  first,  19. 

Defeat  of  Islam  necessary, 
and  why,  113. 

Egypt,  34,  44,  45. 
El-Azhar  University,  34. 


European  nations  in  Africa 
toward  Islam,  attitude  of, 
44. 

European  nations  in  Africa, 
diflSculties  of,  51. 

European  nations  in  Africa, 
unwisdom  of  policy  of,  52, 
84. 

Factors  in  the  amazing  ad- 
vance of  Islam,  23f.;  war, 
26;  Christian  weakness,  29; 
missionaries,  30;  Senussi- 
ism,  33;  schools  and  htera- 
ture,  34;  trade,  35;  ease 
with  which  followed,  37; 
polygamy,  38;  assimilative 
power,  38;  home  training, 
40;  the  spectacular,  40; 
vastness,  41;  Arabic  lan- 
guage, 41 ;  the  black  man's 
poor  memory,  42;  increas- 
ing means  of  communica- 
tion, 44;  European  govern- 
mental attitude,  44. 

Fanaticism,  83,  108. 

Fatalistic  tendencies,  105, 
106,  107. 

Formula  showing  one's  Mos- 
lem faith,  37. 


125 


126 


INDEX 


France  and  Islam,  27,  49. 
French  West  Africa,  13. 
Germany  and  Islam,  51. 
God,  Moslem  conception  of, 

69,  105,  106,  107,  108. 
Gordon    Memorial    College, 

45. 

Hajj,  or  Meccan  Pilgrimage, 

the,  40,  41. 
Hausa  tribe,  81. 

Influences  of  Islam,  helpful, 

69f. 
Influences  of  Islam,  harmful, 

82f. 

Java,  cause  of  spread  of 
Islam  in,  26. 

"KaflBr,"  origin  and  meaning 
of  word,  61. 

Kanuri  tribe,  81. 

Khartoum  and  General  Gor- 
don, 83. 

Liberia,  33,  63,  71,  74,  99. 
Literature  in  Islam,  34. 
Lobollo  Country,  100. 

Mandingo  tribe,  83. 

Mecca,  first  Moslems  in  Af- 
rica exiles  from,  58. 

Mentality  of  Moslem  tribes, 
80,  81,  82. 

Missionary  Society,  Moslem, 
30. 


Mohammed,  the  character  of, 

13,  14,  112. 
Monotheism  in  Islam,  21,  37, 

69,  71. 
Morals,  lax,  37,  68,  102f. 
Moslems  in  Africa,  first,  57, 

58. 

''Negro,"  to  whom  applied, 

61. 
Northern  Nigeria,  46,  47,  63, 

72,  75. 
Nupe  tribe,  81,  105. 
Nyasaland,  64,  78,  85. 

Oath,  Moslem,  how  taken  in 
Africa,  103. 

Persecutions  against  Islam  in 

the  beginning,  20. 
Polygamy,  38,  91f.,  117. 
Populations,  Moslem,  15,  16. 
Portuguese  East  Africa,  60, 

61. 
Predestination,  69,  70,   105, 

106,  107. 
Purpose  of  book,  11,  12. 

Schools,  34,  35,  36,  64. 

Senussiism,  33,  84. 

Sheik,  the  third  most  power- 
ful, 63. 

Sierra  Leone,  27,  32,  36,  46, 
62,  71,  72,  73,  74,  75,  79, 
80,  81,  103,  104. 

Slave  trade,  42,  43,  74. 

Sofas,  27. 


INDEX 


127 


Source  of  information,  four- 
fold, 12. 

South  Africa,  32,  60  62,  97. 

Southern  Nigeria,  63,  73. 

Spirituality  in  Islam,  71,  105. 

Stepping-stone  to  Christian- 
ity, Islam  not  a,  11  Of. 

Substitute  for  Christianity, 
Islam  not  a,  1  lOf . 

Sudan,  the,  15,  45,  47. 


Timini  tribe,  43,  81. 
Traders,  Arab,  26,  35,  36. 
Tripoli,  58. 
Tunisia,  56,  60,  79. 

Veil,  origin  of  wearing,  92,  93. 

Wine,  reason  for  Moslem  op- 
position to,  76,  77. 

Women,  treatment  of,  73,  74, 
85f.,  117. 


Temperance,  71f. 


Yoruba  tribe,  43. 


Date  Due 


O^-d^'-Sf 


ffJV-^'r^ 


tf^'J  .•   -,: 


BP65 .A4S54 
Islamic  Africa. 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00006  6532 


